5WomenArtists

Women in the Arts #6

The following blog post is the last in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism. 

WELL EVERYONE WE ARE HERE. We did it. We arrived to International Women's Day!!! We've spent the past five days chatting about ‪#‎FiveWomenArtists‬, and I am so proud of us. I hope you consider yourself more knowledgeable, more in the know, more likely to say, "Oh hey, I can name at LEAST five artists who are women, IF NOT MORE." You are welcome for that line, which you may now put into your conversational toolkit.

To recap, you now know about Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Zubeida Agha, Yayoi Kusama, Adrian Piper, and Sophie Calle. But you GUYS, here is the kicker: There are more artists out there who are women! I know!!! I had SUCH a difficult time narrowing down this list to just these five extraordinary ladies, and I encourage you to go off and educate yourself about all the groundbreaking badass women in art history who have had to work as hard (if not way harder) than their male counterparts to be seen, sold, and exhibited. The next time you are at a museum, take a minute and take stock -- is the piece you're looking at by a woman? What about the piece next to it? And the one after that?

As activist/artist/anonymous collective the Guerrilla Girls so succinctly put it: "You're seeing less than half the picture without the vision of women artists and artists of colour." Without the voices of marginalised groups within the canon of art history, we're only seeing the world and its history through one lens -- and that lens is white and male.

"I don't want that! What ELSE could I do?" I hear the strawmen ask!

Wellll, you could follow the hashtag #FiveWomenArtists to see the amazing trend the National Museum of Women in the Arts started to learn more about the women who have contributed to the world of art over the years, and expand your vocabulary. If you're more of a self-motivated Wikipedia-hounding Googler like myself, maybe check out some of the fave ladies on my list I didn't get to include this week, like Kara Walker, Tracey Emin, Janine Antoni, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kreuger, Cindy Sherman, Carolee Schneemann, Berthe Morisot, Laura Knight, Judy Chicago, Francesca Woodman, Marina Abramović, and SO MANY MORE.

Maybe check this awesome list Huffington Post put together:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/artists-you-should-remember…

Or THIS list of *UPCOMING* solo shows for women across the world:https://news.artnet.com/…/10-groundbreaking-female-artists-…

IN CONCLUSION, MY PALS: It has been a rollercoaster week for all of us, I'm sure. But I have had such fun putting together these posts for you, and a part of me is sorry to have to let you go! More than that, however, I'm glad and so thankful that you've taken the time out of your day to give them a read and learn more. Each 'like' to let me know you've read has meant an embarrassing amount to me, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have!

Go forth and spread the good word of ladies making art.

Peace.

xx

 

Women in the Arts #5

The following blog post is the fifth in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism.

ALRIGHT FAM LISTEN UP. We're talking about ‪#‎FiveWomenArtists‬ in celebration of Women's History Month leading up to International Women's Day TOMORROW. This is our FIFTH artist in our series (you'll get a bonus post tomorrow shh), and she's my FAVE.

SOPHIE CALLE, Y'ALL.

It is 1979 and we are in Venice, following a man we'll only refer to as Henri B., whom we met at a party in Paris just a few days prior. Our pal Sophie Calle has shrugged on a trench coat, donned a blond wig and armed herself with a 35mm camera for the task, and she is basically quietly stalking this man all across Venice to see just how far she can take it -- but in a nice way? "I was just trying to play," she later said of the work, "Suite Venitienne."

Our second artist named Sophie in this series, Calle is a French-born performance artist and she is so rad. Her work is conceptual in theme and execution, exploring ideas like intimacy, sexuality, and the private/public space through avenues which might be considered nontraditional (no paintings, prints, or sculptures in sight). Example -- after her own foray into the Private Eye biz (see above), Calle hired her own private investigator (under a pseudonym) to investigate... herself??? This work, "The Shadow," (1981), was Calle's attempt to get "photographic evidence of [her] own existence." Nice. Or in "L'Hotel," (1981) when Calle worked a three-month stint as a maid at a Big Hotel in Paris. She would open up the luggage in the rooms she was sent to clean, photograph their contents, and then try to piece together biographies for the individuals to whom they belonged (see an extract from this series attached). What the heck! Travel safe, folks.

Sophie "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Calle carries this particular brand of playful voyeurism throughout her body of work, whether she is getting strangers to tell her the worst breakup story they have to help ease the pain of her own painful breakup ("Douleur Exquise," 2003), or replacing paintings in MoMA with descriptions of the paintings, as written by the guards assigned to their rooms ("Ghosts," 1991). Her work is cleverly thought out, and meticulously put together. Sophie Calle is a woman after my own heart. She still practices today, and is the only artist I can think of whose work simultaneously moves me to tears AND makes me go, "What the HECK, Sophie." If you check out no other artist on my list, make it this one.

Check out these posts from the beginning, with a rundown on gender inequality in the arts and our first Sophie on my profile.

Tune in tomorrow for a big old blowout of a recap, celebration, and meditation on badass ladies in art! Happy Women's History Month!

xoxo

Women in the Arts #4

The following blog post is the fourth in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism.

FAST FACTS: We're talking about ‪#‎5WomenArtists‬ in celebration of Women's History Month! We've learned about three fantastic women so far, and now we get to chat about ADRIAN PIPER!!!

It is 1981, and we're at a little school in Cambridge, Mass. Maybe it is snowing. I don't know. Adrian Piper is getting her PhD from Harvard, and -- you guys. It's just. Adrian Piper is one accomplished gal, and it will take a lot of time to list every single badass thing she has done. We could talk about her MANY degrees (School of Visual Arts, A.A. Visual Arts; CUNY, B.A. in Philosophy; Harvard, M.A. and PhD, Philosophy -- not to mention her time studying Kant in Berlin for three years). We could talk about her fellowships (National Endowment -- twice -- AND Guggenheim? Damn, Piper BACK at it again with the fellowships). We could talk about her faculty positions at Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, and Wellesley (among others) or how when she was put on the "Suspicious Travelers," list whilst working in Berlin, Piper said, "Fuck that," and just never returned to America. As if you could just DO that.

It should be pretty clear that Adrian Piper is a "Don't take 'No,' for an answer," kind of person, and has worked incredibly hard to be where she is today (Berlin. Remember, from before?). Her art practice is conceptual, and her body of work ranges from traditional painting, to prints, drawings, sculpture, photomanipulation and documentation, as well as performance art (among others. I KNOW.) Her work is reflective of both her intellectual pursuits (Kantian metaethics) and whip-smart personality. She is unafraid to confront issues such as race, gender, class, and "otherness," and Peggy Phalen has said that her work shows "the ways in which racism and sexism are intertwined pathologies which have distorted our lives." Piper herself calls this kind of confrontation "therapeutic and catalytic." Rock on, Adrian.

Some of Piper's more well-known works include "Mythic Being," (1972) where she donned an afro wig, a mustache, and a distinctly male-gait, with which she sauntered around New York City, negotiating a male/female space, exploring blackness and the black male figure in among the crowds. She also produced a series of Calling Cards -- one of which I've uploaded here as the thumbnail to this post ("My Calling (Card) #1" (1986-1990)) -- to ostensibly pass out to friends or strangers, and call them out for their problematic behavior in a clinical and premeditated way. Piper continues to practice today, and she took home the Golden Lion Award for Best Artist at the 56th Venice Biennale last year. Her work continues to be shows at museums internationally. Nice, you guys. Nice.

Check out her meticulously put together website here:http://www.adrianpiper.com/

In addition to Adrian Piper, we've talked about gender inequality in the arts, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Zubeida Agha and Yayoi Kusama. You can check out those posts on my page, or give 'em a Google!