Can You Name Five Women Artists?

“Can you name five women artists?” is a simple question with a complex reaction.  Many times the response you will receive is no.  The reason for this is that art history was written so that the house hold names of art would be those of white male artists.  Ask the question “Can you name five male artists?” and even those with a limited knowledge on art history can answer without straining their brains.  Those who even have taken art history classes find that the ratio of male to female artists being taught is completely imbalanced.  I, myself have experienced this in my life as an art history student.  Women artists just do not get the same opportunities that male artists get.  These are just five of the many women artists that do deserve the same recognition as male artists.

Judy Chicago is the artist who created the amazing instillation The Dinner Party (1979) that is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum.  This piece celebrates hundreds of important women from history.  The table is set up in a triangle that seats 13 women on each side.  Each woman has her own personal table setting that is specific to her achievements.  The linens and pottery of the table settings are a reference to women being expected to make craft work.  She had a team of women helping her create the piece.  The plates are decorated in the shape of a vulva.  This was very controversial when it was made.  

Another work by Judy Chicago is Hatching the Universal Egg (1984).  This work was part of her Birth Project.  This is a project that Judy Chicago felt was important due to the lack of art representing birth.  This particular piece demonstrates a woman giving birth with a warm light pouring out of her.  Just like The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago had a team of women help her in creating this piece as well.  This piece is made by embroidery which is also a traditional craft done by women which makes it more symbolic.  

Carolee Schneemann is another artist that deserves to be well known for her performance art.  One of her most known performance pieces is Meat Joy (1964).  This was part of a performance movement called Body Art.  These performances were done to address how women’s bodies are repressed and shamed.  Meat Joy was first performed in Paris.  In the performance men and women danced around while rubbing meat onto their bodies.  This performance was seen as sensual and also repulsive.  However, it represents the control over one’s own body.  

Another performance piece by Carolee Schneemann is Interior Scroll (1975).  In this piece Carolee Schneemann enters a room and removes her clothing.  As she stands on a table with her body painted, she begins to read a scroll that she removes from her vagina.  This piece is a reflection on how she views the vagina.  She says; “I thought of the vagina in many ways - physically, conceptually, as a sculptural form, an architectural referent, the source of sacred knowledge, ecstasy, birth passage, transformation."  This piece comments on society’s views on the female body.  Schneemann wants to show control over her own body.  She addresses the issue of society shaming the female reproduction system.  

Barbara Kruger is an artist who uses graphic design to get her message across to her viewer.  Her piece Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) (1989) was designed for women’s reproductive rights.  Her black and white imagery of a woman starting straight on with striking red and white text really emphasizes the point to the viewer.  The positive and negative of the image represent the split when it comes to the debate of women’s reproductive rights.  This piece represents a woman’s right to be in control of her body and choose what she wants to do when it comes to her health.

 

A contemporary piece by Barbara Kruger is It’s All About Me, I Mean You, I Mean Me (2010).  This piece was used for the cover of W magazine.  It shows a photo of a nude Kim Kardashian with Barbara Kruger’s famous red and white lettering saying, “It’s all about you, I mean me, I mean you”.  This piece shows irony and juxtaposition.  Kim Kardashian’s nudity can bring up the debate about women showing their bodies for their own liberation and freedom or instead to accommodate the male gaze.  This piece shows that these questions are still relevant in contemporary times.

Yoko Ono is another performance artist.  She is well known for her association to John Lennon but not everyone is familiar with her art.  Her performance Cut Piece (1964) was a conceptual piece that was interactive with the audience.  Yoko Ono sat on the floor with a pair of scissors and invited her audience to cut away at her clothing.  This can be seen as a social experiment to test the boundaries between submissive and dominant roles.  As she was passive, the audience began to take liberation to push the limits of what they could do.  This piece symbolized the vulnerability of women.   

Louis Bourgeois created a series of paintings called Femme Maison (1946).  This series depicts nude women as houses.  They were made to address female identity.  They question the role of women as housewives.  They bring up the domestic role of women as mothers and wives and also another side of women that want to go out in the world and have their own life.  This is something that brings guilt for women because of the expectancy of being a housewife.