Can You Name Five Women Artist?

The Art and Women class has taught me a great deal about art and female artist. One day I asked my friend if she could name five female artists and could not even name one female artist. Actually, this was me before taking this class and now I am able to recognize more women artists. This question makes me question why is women artwork still unrecognized today.  In this essay I have included Judy Chicago, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Harriet Powers, and Shirin Neshat as female artist whose work has been a major breakthrough in art and for women.

Judy Chicago is an author, writer, artist and one of the pioneers of feminists Art during the 70’s. Judy Chicago was born in Chicago, Illinois, 1939. During her teenage years she took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She also went to train at the UCLA, where she obtained her M.F.A in 1964. Additionally, in the Brooklyn Museum her installation artwork, The Dinner Party (1939) is on displayed. This installation is  a triangular table comprised of thirty-nine place settings. On the floor the name of 999 artists are in gold and white. Chicago Dinner Party is celebrates women artist who have been undermined by people. One that I found interesting when looking at this piece is the shapes because each place has the shape of a vulva. The Dinner Party is a clear representation of feminist art that challenges politics and men.

 

 Judy Chicago. The Dinner Party (1979)

Frida Kahlo has left a great impression and has made a great impact on my life. Kahlo was a Mexican painter and self-portrait artists.  She was influence by Realism, Symbolism, and Realism. In 1929, she married Diego Rivera with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. Kahlo’s artwork depicts her personal experience such as her miscarriages and inability to conceive a baby, marriage, and the operations she received after the bus accident she was in.

Frida Kahlo. Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed). 1932

The painting Henry Ford Hospital reflects what Kahlo felt when she was having a miscarriage. The painting depicts Kahlo connection to six objects. One of them is a male fetus, which reflects her wish to become a mother. Another object is the female reproductive system, a snail, an orchid, and a fractured pelvis. Another famous painting is The Broken Column depicts Kahlo as a strong woman. It also depicts a split torso and nails covering her face and body. A hospital sheet covers her lower body. This painting reflects Kahlo pain in her personal life. She pains herself as being broken and in pain. A corset is what keeps her body together. Although she depicts herself being broken, she is still holding on and looks strong. 

Frida Kahlo. The Broken Column. 1944

Georgia O’keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. She was a 20^th century who was known for her southwestern landscape and flower canvases. During the early 1900’s she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. After this she attended the Art Student League in New York.  She played an important role in the development of Modernism. One of her most important works includes Oriental Poppies (1928).  O’keeffe illustrates the abstract shape of the flower putting an emphasis on the elements of the color, shape, and texture in what she paints. Additionally, Judy Chicago includes Georgia O'Keeffe as a guest on The Dinner Party.

 Georgia O'Keeffe. Oriental Poppies (1928) 

 Judy Chicago. The Dinner Party (1979). 

Harriet Powers was born on October 29, 1837 in Clarke County, Georgia. She was born a slave and she was an African American slave and quilt maker. She married Armstead Powers and had about nine children. Powers may have made many quilts during the time she was alive, but as of today only two are the ones that remain and have been preserved. The first is the Bible Quilt (1886), and the second is the Pictorial Quilt (1898). In these two quilts Powers uses the traditional African applique technique. Other mediums or techniques that she uses consists of embroidered, quilted, and cotton plain wave. Both quilts also significant Biblical stories. For instance, the Pictorial Quilt is divided in fifteen sections. The fifteen pictorial depicts God crucifixion and the two thieves.

Harriet Powers. Bible Quilt. 1886

Harriet Powers. Pictorial Quilt. 1898

Shirin Neshat was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957. At the age of seventeen she moved to the United States for educational purposes. In 1983, she obtained a BA from the University of California at Berkeley. Her earliest works consists of photograph, which includes Unveiling (1993), and Women of Allah (1993-97) series. Certainly, the video that spoke to me the most was Turbulent (1998).  This video along with Rapture (1999) and Fervor(2000) use dual video screens that emphasize on the abstract oppositions based on gender and society. Turbulent depicts a man who is singing with and audience on one side of the screen. On the other side of the screen there is a woman who is signing, but with no audience. Neshat  depicts in Turbulent how females are being unrecognized. The male exerts more authority over a woman. In this video the female is more talented, but still due to the norms and society they are not known or taken seriously. 

Shirin Neshat. Turbulent. 1998. 

Shirin Neshat. Fervor. 2000.

After taking the Art and Women’s class, I can say that I can name five women artists. Shirin Neshat, Judy Chicago, Harriet Powers, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo are female artists whose artwork has been a breakthrough in art and for women including myself. Their artwork deserves praise and to be more recognized by people. 

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_partyK/

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-chicago-judy.htm

http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org

http://www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496#synopsis

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/harriet.html

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pictorial-quilt-116166

http://civilwarwomenblog.com/harriet-powers/

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/shirin-neshat

Extra Credit: Can You Name 5 Women Artists?

      Throughout history, women have been recognized lesser as opposed to men, and sometimes not recognized at all, for their work. Prior to my Art and Women class, I had almost no knowledge of any artists, regardless of their gender. However, I was exposed to a world of an ongoing struggle fought for centuries, where male patriarchy dictated unequal pay, and recognition. I am glad I now know of several women artists, their work, and the odds they battled in order to be recognized for it. I will discuss five women artists, who quite honestly stood out to me, and they are Sonia Delaunay, Frida Kahlo, Faith Ringgold, Judy Chicago, and Shirin Neshat.

      Sonia Delaunay (November 14, 1885 – December 5, 1979) belonged to the era of the “isms”, strictly, the Modernism era, as she painted abstract art. She was a Ukranian born French artist who worked most of her life in Paris. She was amongst the pioneers of the Orphism art movement, using strong colors and geometric shapes, as presented in Chadwick, “ease of movement and primacy of color as expressive medium also characterized Sonia Delaunay's work in both painting and decoration"(Chadwick, 260).

Sonia Delaunay, Couverture, 1911

She painted, and also explored textile design and stage set design, and was the first female living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964. Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing. Delaunay's painting Coccinelle was featured on a stamp jointly released by the French Post Office, La Poste and the United Kingdom's Royal Mail in 2004.

Sonia Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts, 1912

      Frida Kahlo (July 6^th, 1907 – July 13^th, 1954) was a Mexican Surrealist painter who typically painted self-portraits using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by cultures of Mexico, and European Surrealism. Her self-portraits were usually a depiction of her life and her pain, mental and physical.
At the age of eighteen she was involved in a bus accident that crushed her, left her immobile, and permanently damaged her reproductive ability. She spent her recovery time painting and drawing, including numerous self portraits using a mirror across from her bed. She stated,

"I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best".


Her art spans over a hundred and forty paintings, including over fifty self portraits, many of them in a Surrealist style using symbolism to depict her pain and anguish. Unlike most Surrealists however she disliked the idea of the dream world and psychology. She stated,

"They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality"

Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944

She was included in esteemed group shows in the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her 1944 piece "The Broken Column" may be the one painting that best shows her pain. The nails in her body and the tears in Frida's eyes are a metaphor for the excruciating physical pain, while her nudity depicts her helplessness and sexual angst.

Frida eventually became an impassioned Communist. Since the 70's and 80's, numerous articles, books and documentaries have been made about her life and art, as she was a central historical figure of the Neomexicanismo Art Movement in Mexico, the 1983 movie Frida, Naturaleza Viva, Haydeen Herrera's Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo, and the 2002 film Frida.

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939

      Faith Ringgold (Faith Will Jones) was born in Harlem, New York City on October 8, 1930. She was raised during the Harlem Renaissance and exposed by her parents to all of its cultural offerings. She suffered from asthma as a young girl,she spent a lot of time at home with her mother, who was a fashion designer and taught her to sew and work creatively with fabrics. She enrolled at the City College of New York in 1950, and wound up studying art education when the liberal arts department denied her application. She married a musician named Robert Wallace, with whom she would have two children, and would divorce several years later, after Wallace developed a heroin addiction that would eventually lead to his death. After receiving her B.S. in 1955, she taught art in the public school system and also enrolled in a graduate studies program at City College, where she developed her own art. She received her M.A. in art in 1959 and later toured Europe, visiting many of its finest museums.

Faith Ringgold, Die, 1967

She remarried to Burdette Ringgold in 1962 and began a series of paintings which counted among her most important work—American People, which was featured in her first solo gallery show in 1967. Centered around themes from the civil rights movement, paintings such as Neighbors, Die, and The Flag Is Bleeding all capture the racial tensions of the era. In 1970, Ringgold’s Black Light series was featured in her second solo gallery show. Early in the 1970's, Ringgold visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and was deeply affected by its collection of Tibetan thangka paintings in particular, which influenced her art. Upon returning to New York, Ringgold began to incorporate similar elements in her work, painting with acrylic on canvases with fabric borders and creating cloth dolls and soft sculptures, including Wilt, which depicted basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain. She left her teaching job in 1973, and branched out in other directions, beginning a collection of portrait sculptures called The Harlem Series, and creating African-influenced masks that were included in performance pieces.

Faith Ringgold, Who’s Bad?, 1988

She also made posters in support of the Black Panthers and activist Angela Davis. She attempted to have her autobiography published, but was unsuccessful, and so discovered a new way to tell her story. She drew inspiration from Tibetan art, and began a series of quilts that remains perhaps her best-known work. She assembled the first quilt, Echoes of Harlem in 1980 and went on to make numerous others, eventually incorporating text as well.

Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach, 1988

In the 1990s, Ringgold embarked on a literary career and published the children’s book Tar Beach (1991)—adapted from her quilt of the same name, and her memoir We Flew over the Bridge (1995) She has written and illustrated more than 15 other children’s books to date. She was a professor at the University of California at San Diego, where she taught until 2002.

She staged protests at museums such as the Whitney and MoMA over the lack of black artists represented in their exhibitions. At the Whitney, women artists and African American artists were excluded from the show. She founded several organizations, such as, Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee; Women Artists in Revolution (WAR); Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL); and National Black Feminist Organization.

      Judy Chicago (born July 20^th, 1939) is an artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual whose career now spans five decades. She has been included in hundreds of publications across the world, which attests to her influence within and beyond the art community.

Judy Chicago, "Virginia Woolf", The Resurrection Triptych, 1973

After a decade of professional art practice, in 1974, Chicago explored the subject of women’s history to create her most well-known work, The Dinner Party, which was executed between 1974 and 1979 with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. This monumental multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization, has been the subject of countless articles and art history texts and is included in innumerable publications in diverse fields. In 2007, The Dinner Party was permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum as the centerpiece of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

JudyChicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-79

“The Dinner Party comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history. The settings consist of embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored. The names of another 999 women are inscribed in gold on the white tile floor below the triangular table. This permanent installation is enhanced by rotating Herstory Gallery exhibitions relating to the 1,038 women honored at the table” (Brooklyn Museum, The Dinner Party)

She recently, Chicago published a final updated book, The Dinner Party: Restoring Women to History (The Monacelli Press, 2014).

      Shirin Neshat (born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian visual artist who is known mainly for her work in film, video and photography. Her work is entailed by the Postmodernism era, and it contrasts Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, while bridging the spaces between these subjects. Neshat has been recognized countless times for her work, such as being named Artist of the Decade by Huffington Post.

ShirinNeshat, Turbulent, 1998

Shirin Neshat, The Last Word, 2003

Her work refers to the social, cultural and religious codes of Muslim societies and the complexity of certain oppositions, such as man and woman. She portrays this theme by showing two or more coordinated films simultaneously, creating stark visual contrasts through motifs such as light and dark, black and white, male and female. Her work recognizes the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world, and examines concepts such as martyrdom, the space of exile, and the issues of identity and femininity.

      Today, I can proudly say that I have more knowledge of women artists, and through my Art and Women class was able to experience the struggle they went through in order to be recognized for their effort and the quality of their work. I hope to share this knowledge with other friends, both women and men, struggling to be recognized for their work, and inspire them to believe in the work they do.

Works Cited:

1. Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Fifth Edition. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.
2. Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print
3. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party
4. http://www.gladstonegallery.com/artist/shirin-neshat/#&panel1-1

Extra Credit Post: Can You Name 5 Women Artist?

                                             
                   Can You Name 5 Women Artist?

   Prior to this course this question was challenging, it was even hard to name 5 male artists, let alone female artists, nonetheless with the repertoire offered in this course and the entertaining trip to the Brooklyn Museum, One's eyes are opened to this phenomenon- in which the history of art is predominantly represented by men without much regard to the great contributions of women artists. To speak in jest at this point I can with some confidence name 50 women artists, but I will stick with five. The five women artists I chose are Anne Vallayer-Coster, Sonia Delaunay, Lee Krasner, Judy Chicago and Rosemarie Trockel.

                      Anne Vallayer-Coster                                                    (1744-1818)

   Anne Vallayer-Coster was a French painter of the 18th century, born in a noble family with a tendency for art, she had the prerogative to surpass the conditions of the age as a female artist and upon submitting two of her paintings she was elected in the prestigious French Royal Academy. After several years of her artistic career she would be closely associated with the French Noble families to the extent that she won the patronage of Queen Marie-Antoinette. She is famously known for her still lifes.

                 

                        Still life with round bottle

 Still life with lobster (1781)

eventually due to her close association with Marie Antoinette, her career suffered during the French Revolution. She continued exhibiting at the Salon, however, until the year before her death.

                         Sonia Delaunay
                           (1885-1979)

Sonia Delaunay was a Russian artist who moved to Paris at a young age and spent most of her career life there, her work is characterized by strong colors and geometric shapes as Chadwick explains"ease of movement and primacy of color as expressive medium also characterized Sonia Delaunay's work in both painting and decoration"(260)

                                                                                             Couverture    1911

                    

                         Prismes electriques

                              Lee Krasner
                              (1908-1984)

Lee Krasner belongs to the first generation of Abstract Expressionist painters,born in Brooklyn, New York.Krasner pursued formal art training at several New York city institutions, during the 1930's she worked for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project.Her positions with the Mural Division provided her with valuable experience working on a large scale, she was also an active member of the Artists Union and The American Abstract Artists.               

    Gouache Number 4 ( Study for Lavender) 1942
                                    

          
                    Still life     1938
                  
                         Judy Chicago
                           (1939-)

After more than four decades, Judy Chicago continues to be influential feminist artist, author, and educator. Her pioneering work helped establish the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970's. The Dinner Party executed between 1974-1979 and was first exhibited in 1979 is regarded as the first epic piece of feminist artwork. It functions as a symbolic history of women of mostly Western civilization. The goal of this piece was to “end the ongoing cycle of omission in which women were written out of historical record”. With the use of hundreds of volunteers, the exhibit is comprised of a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged in a triangular table, including thirty-nine place settings. With 13 place settings on each side. Each place setting commemorates an important woman from history including, Hatshepsut, Ishtar, Virginia Woolf, Sojourner Truth and others. Each place setting includes a hand-painted china plate, ceramic flatware, and chalice, and an embroidered gold edge napkin with the woman’s name and images relating to her accomplishments. It has been a permanent exhibition within the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art of the Brooklyn Museum since 2007.



                     The Dinner Party



       The Dinner Party







                      Rosemarie Trockel                                                         (1952-)

Rosemarie Trockel is a German artist she lives and works in Cologne. She works on paper and sculptures but famously known for her "Knitted pictures", her work is influenced by "conceptual and socio-political art"(Chadwick 397).Though it is difficult to associate a particular style with her work, several concurrent themes can be identified within her oeuvre, such as the female role in society, the trademarks and symbols as social signifiers and decorations and finally, her fascination with ethnographic and scientific studies, which are often expressed through her sculptures,she exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe.






                          Dress Stage 2012



                         Umbrella  2008



   A Ship So Big, a Bridge Cringes   2004



        Untitled     2006



                   Paranoia      2013


Works Cited:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Fifth Edition. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.

Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party

http://www.gladstonegallery.com/artist/rosemarie-trockel/work#&panel1-1

Links:

This video on The National Museum Of Women In The Arts, is enlightening and entertaining about the subject of women artists.

Women Artists    

5 women Artists

Jacqueline Nesti Joseph Haitian Artist 

Jacqueline Nesti Joseph, Groupe Au Marche 1986

Louisiane Saint Fleurant Haitian Artist

Louisiane Saint Fleurant, The Family 1999

Lois Mailou Jones American Artist, but she married a haitian man who was also artist.

Lois Mailou Jones, Haitian Market 1963

Julie Mehretu Ethiopian Artist

Julie Mehretu, Stadia Series 2004

Grandma Moses American Artist

Grandma Moses, Fireboard 1918

Can You Name 5 Female Artists?

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1979

 

 

This question was an unexpected challenge most students in our Arts & Women class could not answer on the first day.  In fact, the question prompted a discussion which led to the realization that most people have experienced difficulty in naming 5 female artists.  By contrast, naming male artists seem to be answered without any struggle. 

 

Our class trip to the Brooklyn Museum to visit Judy Chicago's, exhibition, The Dinner Party, was a great opportunity to learn more about women's art and their accomplishments.  The ceramic plates were meticulously created and placed on the grand table with great showmanship and commanding presence.    Each plate represents the artist and celebrates their accomplishments.  The emphasis was not only the art, but, the women's success and the attainment of their status as great artist and great woman in history.  Ironically, if female artist weren't a separate category from the male artist, Judy Chicago's recognition by way of her exhibition of  The Dinner Party, may not have been an exhibition of women artist, at all. 
Actually, it could have been an acknowledgement of all great artist's contribution to art history, as a whole, not a segregated category that evolved from necessity as oppose to magnificent talent.      

Georgia O'Keeffe's  creations inspired by  magnification of the obvious.




The uniqueness in Georgia O'Keeffe's art commands attention to detail by magnifying flower parts to create female sexual abstractions, yet beautiful floral portrayals.  Georgia's art speaks volumes with little effort, so to speak. There is  no misunderstanding, her artwork is not trivial,  on the contrary, it is ingenious.

 "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for".
"Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time".

"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do".

"I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole ".                                  

   -Georgia O'Keeffe

 

American artist, Georgia O’Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Wisconsin, United States and died on March 6,  1986, at the age of 98. Georgia O’Keeffe knew she wanted to be an artist at a very young age.  She took lessons with Sara Mann, a watercolour painter.  In 1924, she married Alfred Stieglitz, a New York modern art promoter.  Her husband organized annual exhibitions of her work and she started to gain a reputation as one of America’s most important artists.   

       

    Before selfies were a fad,  Frida Kahlo was the selfie queen of the times. She painted many self portraits which  illustrated the suffering she endured during her lifetime.  Her poor health, tumultuous marriage to Diego Rivera and numerous affairs were displayed on canvas for the world to see.  She hid no truth, she opened all doors, and painted all that she could about her life, without inhibitions.

 

"I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best"  -Frida Kahlo



Faith Ringgold



Faith Ringgold Groovin'

Kara Walker, Insurrection

Kara Walker, Bleed

 

Doris Salcedo

"Gegorgia O'Keeffe and Her Paintings." Georgia O'Keeffe Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. N.p., 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.   https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/