Feminist art

Feminist art. A term applied to art that deals with issues specifically relating to women's identity and experience. As a movement it originated in the late 1960s, in parallel with the militant Women's Liberation Movement. It is not associated with any particular style or medium, but rather is concerned with a range of endeavour aimed at giving women a just place in the world and specifically in the art world, which feminist artists regard as heavily biased in favour of men. Much of this endeavour has been collective—for example in the organization of exhibitions (devoted to reviving the reputations of women artists of the past as well as promoting the work of women artists of the present), in the setting up of courses dealing with women's art, and in the publishing of periodicals, several of which have appeared since the early 1970s. Some feminist art has been fairly traditional in presentation—for example the paintings of Sylvia Sleigh (1916– ) (see Alloway), in which long-standing stereotypes of the nude are reversed by presenting males as a subject for female erotic delectation. However, much feminist art uses more avant-garde types of expression; indeed, as many feminist artists feel that traditional forms are tainted by patriarchy, they tend to be interested in newer forms, such as Performance art and Video art.

The imagery of feminist art often focuses on sexuality, both in celebrating female eroticism and in attacking male sexual violence, and another common theme is matriarchy. Some feminist art, however, is more concerned with technique than imagery. Indeed, an important aspect of the movement has been the desire to revive interest in art forms such as quiltmaking that employ skills traditionally regarded as female and which have generally been given a low status compared with the fine arts. This return to craft skills is emphasized in what is probably the most famous ‘icon’ of feminist art, The Dinner Party (1974–9, Through the Flower Corporation) by the American Judy Chicago (1939– ); more than a hundred women (and also some men) worked on the elaborate china painting and needlework it involved. It takes the form of an open triangular banquet table, with 39 place settings, each representing a significant woman in Western civilization. The Dinner Party has been seen by large audiences at several venues in the USA and elsewhere (its first showing was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1979, when it attracted 100,000 visitors in three months).