Art and Feminism (Themes & Movements)

In the late 1960s feminism exploded into popular consciousness. As women began to carve their own spaces in politics and the workplace, so too they demanded to enter art history - where traditionally they had chiefly featured as anonymous bodily subjects of art produced, patronized, collected and theorized by men. Indeed most feminist art until the late 1970s was preoccupied with re-presenting the female body, ranging from the guerilla street actions of Valie Export to the naked performances of Hannah Wilke, to Ana Mendieta's outlines of absent female bodies in the landscape. The emerging debates surrounding new feminist art were fiercely discussed: should women artists compete with men or exclude them? Is the naked female body, even in feminist artists' performances, still an objectification of women? From the 1960s to the millennium, "Art and Feminism" traces the changing art practices, art historical debates, manifestos, challenges, rediscoveries and reawakenings that characterize the dynamic, continuing dialogue between feminism and contemporary art. "Art and Feminism" explores the spaces "between" feminism and art, uncovering a shifting, reciprocal relationship. Accessibly and comprehensively ranging across the whole spectrum of art practice and theory, this volume includes the key texts of each period, ranging from the polemics of Germaine Greer and Valerie Solanas to definitions of new artforms by Lucy R. Lippard, to Laura Mulvey's influential film theory, to Craig Owen's Postmodern criticism, as well as rare original artists' statements and reviews. The diverse range of artists featured includes Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Beecroft, Louise Bourgeois, Sophie Calle, Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Coco Fusco, Nan Goldin, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Shirin Neshat, Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Pipilotti Rist, Jenny Saville, Carolee Schneemann, Rosemarie Trockel, Gillian Wearing and many others.

No question about it, Art and Feminism is the basic reference book for feminist art. Part of Phaidon's excellent Themes and Movements series, it surveys three decades of a tumultuous history with a brief but inclusive essay, reproductions of works by 155 artists, and lengthy excerpts from groundbreaking texts by artists and theorists. The challenge posed by a movement that spans several artistic generations and includes many contentious players is ably met by essayist Peggy Phelan, professor of performance studies at New York University. She illuminates the intertwined workings of feminist politics and literary criticism, psychoanalysis, race and queer theory with clarity and a refreshing absence of doctrinaire pronouncements.

The illustrations are organized chronologically under sometimes quirky headings, beginning with "Too Much" (late-'60s performance pieces by such pioneering figures as Carolee Schneemann, Miriam Schapiro, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, and Yayoi Kusama). The final section, "Femmes de Siècle," contains work from the '90s by Coco Fusco, Kara Walker, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Saville, and others exploring "collective memories ... and traumas." Essays range from the raw invective of Valerie Solanas's "Scum Manifesto" (1967) to the reasoned arguments of Adrian Piper's "The Triple Negation of Colored Women Artists" (1990). While some may argue that the book could be more inclusive--it deals overwhelmingly with women artists who exhibit in major Western cultural centers--it offers an unparalleled breadth of reference. Irked by the perfect bodies of many feminist artists who use nudity in their work, I was struck by the poignancy and honesty of Hannah Wilke--a glamorous figure in '70s and '80s performance art--who chose to memorialize her bald, bloated self in photographs months before her untimely death from cancer in 1993. --Cathy Curtis