Key Feminist Artists: Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Edelson, Barbara Kruger

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Feminist artists paved the way to new beginnings within the art world (Broude & Garrard, 1996, p.10). Their beliefs were reconstructed in a way that gave rise to an art movement known as the Feminist art movement, around the 1960s and 70s. This movement has continued to evolve and is still present nowadays. Being that the Western culture was mainly male-dominated, they aimed to induce equality between genders, but also to raise awareness on other social issues such as race, sexuality, and class. According to feminist critic Lucy R. Lippard (1980) ‘feminist art was ‘neither a style nor a movement’ but instead ‘a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life’ (p.10)

Many female artists, especially those of the 1950s and 60s, had to overcome the socio-political constructs of women not being entitled to obtain a qualified level of artistic education. Women artists were not always given the same opportunities as men and were often rejected entry within professional art schools. The artist, Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the few that had been given the opportunity to develop her career and it was all thanks to her husband Alfred Stieglitz, who conformed to the male ideals of what a real woman and her art would be like (Broude & Garrard, 1996, p. 13). Further on, female artists were becoming more aware of their own identity, questioning their well-being within society . Hence, this gave way to feminist artists to reconstruct ‘ a new position for ‘woman’ in art, as subject rather than object, active speaker and not passive theme.’ (Lippard, n.d, p.22)

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The American artist, Mary Beth Edelson is known for being one of the very first-generation feminist artists of the movement, according to the MoMA museum’s biography. Her work conveys the female body in ways that it had been underrepresented throughout the course of art history. She often portrays women as goddesses and warriors, showing the true spirit of female empowerment within patriarchal societies (Stanford, n.d). Thus, showing the artist’s liking of portraying women in positions of power, which contradicts the stereotypes which seem to still be somewhat indulged within today’s society. We can see the amendment of this stereotypical belief through one of her many works Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper (1972), which is a reinterpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s last supper. Historic female artists take the place of Jesus and his disciples, by numerous face cut-outs pasted on top of the copied image, which are then surrounded by more pictures of the Edelson’s female friends and idols. The pictures create a frame-like border around the dinner scene and encompasses artists such as Miriam Shapiro, Hannah Wilke, Yoko Ono, Faith Ringgold, Agnes Martin, and Alice Neel. Taking the place of Jesus, is Georgia O’ Keefe, which as mentioned before was one of the most important female artists, hence the centre positioning. She too initiates on the feminist beliefs, as she embraces the female genitalia within her flower and landscape paintings.

Edelson’s poster not only commemorates women artists but also highlights the struggles women have confronted in their professions. Edelson was quoted as saying “the most negative aspect of organized religion was the positioning of power and authority in the hands of a male hierarchy that intentionally excluded women from access to these positions”. Her choice of such an iconic religious artwork, in itself, makes the work more shock provoking and in a way, also controversial, as she plays about with such well-known religious figures. The women are literally taking the place of men, which shows the overturn of gender constructs. From my standpoint, Edelson has taken this particular time in history out of its context, and did not seem to embrace that there were also important female personas in the picture, like the Holy Mary. Then again, I see why Edelson has chosen such a work to emend such patriarchal ideologies and she finally asserts a voice to the women that had been repressed in the past by symbolically and also literally giving them a place on the table.

Barbara Kruger tackles these issues in a similar approach. Like Edelson, Kruger is a feminist and is one of the most important conceptual artists world-wide. She is mostly known for her large collages of pictures and text, which are not only exhibited in museums but also in public spaces for even the common man to see (Weidemann, Larass & Klier, 2008, p.124). Like Edelson, Kruger uses the power of imagery to spread her message, which is also supported with a textual comment, enhancing more thought-provoking works for the viewer. Her background in design and the media industry, helped her to adopt advertising techniques which till this day she applies to her powerful works. In confrontation with the viewer, she challenges the ideals of the mass media and their influence on society. She continues to indulge the viewer by using pronouns within her phrases, like ‘we’ and ‘you’, which are portrayed in a red panel contrasted with a black and white image in the background. In her work, arise problematic social norms from patriarchy, power, and stereotypes, as one can see in one of her poster designs ‘Your body is a battleground’ (1989). She had designed the poster for the woman’s rights demonstration in Washington of 1989 in the wake of the antiabortion laws (Weidemann, Larass & Klier, 2008, p.124). The image was spread as fliers and served as a visual aid for women all around.

At first glance, one can see a silk screened image of a model’s face looking straight ahead, split in half with negative and positive exposures. The beautiful woman in the image hinted towards society’s ideal woman to always look perfect and reach unrealistic standards. Following this, is the symmetrical divide of the image, representing the different political opinions. Kruger stresses the issue by using the word ‘ Your’ and placing the phrase in the centre to draw attention to the recurrent battle of women striving to gain power. The woman’s gaze is making eye contact with the viewer and it is as if she is doing so in defence. This also relates to the male gaze, which is often thought of as a way to objectify women and assert dominance over them (Women’s Empowerment Blog, 2013). The debate in question centred around the rights over the female’s own body is one which revolves around power and of women being rightfully aware of their own bodies.

Although women have come so far, the female body still undergoes many social challenges both in art and non-art instances. I believe we have also come to a time where sometimes it is the woman herself which makes herself subject for the male gaze, as if the need to be looked at is an instinctive manner. In the past, it had seemed that women were brainwashed into thinking that they had no control over themselves and what they ought to do, and were easily manipulated in doing so. Through the progression of feminist art, the female has grasped the potentials of being a woman and how strong and important she is to be in this world. To my knowledge, both artists bring out the strength and willingness of women, as they become aware of their own worth and power.

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