Feminism And Folk Art

This book uses a feminist approach to analyzing gender relations in the production and distribution of folk art in four different cultures. It examines examples of women’s creativity within male-dominated societies and offers an analysis of different art forms, including clay figures, baskets, lacquer work, and dolls.

DIVAnalyzes Latin American and Caribbean folk art from a feminist perspective, considering the issue of gender in the production and circulation of popular art produced by women./div

Feminist art and theoretical aspects of feminism are linked via a unique and reciprocal bond whose influence extends far beyond their own bounds into the social, cultural, political and economic realms, as well as into the personal lives of women and men alike. This linkage was forged in different places around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. It was especially influential in the United States, during a decade which witnessed the emergence and growth of the Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights, LGBT, and hippie movements and the protest against the Vietnam War. In response to these events, large numbers of women artists joined the ranks of contemporary political-feminist activists, their art directly reflecting the concerns of feminist theory and practice. This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach through which it compares American feminist art and artists with their European counterparts. In order to elucidate the geographical divide, this book takes as a test case the work of Mary Kelly who, while born in the USA, produced much of her work while living in Britain and under the influence of European thought. Challenging traditional disciplinary boundaries, it moves beyond an art-history survey to discuss the artistic field in relation to feminist theory and politics, revealing the continuing relevance of both areas for the contemporary reader. While concentrating upon the second wave of feminism in Europe and the USA, it also addresses aspects of the third wave and the current state of the feminist movement, particularly in respect to the Israeli art scene.

Transnational Perspecives on Feminism and Art, 1960–1985 is a collection of essential essays that bring transnational feminist praxis into conversation with histories of feminist art in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The artistic practices and processes examined within these pages all centre on gender and sexual politics as they variously intersect with race, class, sovereignty, Indigeneity, citizenship, and migration at particular historical moments and within specific geopolitical contexts. The book’s central premise is that reconsidering this period from transnational feminist perspectives will enable new thinking about the critical commonalities and differences across heterogeneous and geographically dispersed practices that have contributed to the complex and multifaceted relationship between feminism and art today. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural studies, visual culture, material culture, and gender studies.

A celebration of art traditionally devalued as too domestic or feminine to be taken seriously and the innovative, brilliant artists reclaiming the idea of ‘women’s work’.

In recent years, Laura Cottingham has emerged as one of the most visible feminist critics of the so-called post-feminist generation. Following a social-political approach to art history and criticism that accepts visual culture as part of a larger social reality, Cottingham's writings investigate central tensions currently operative in the production, distribution and evaluation of art, especially those related to cultural production by and about women. Seeing Through the Seventies: Essays on Feminism and Art gathers together Cottingham's key essays from the 1990's. These include an appraisal of Lucy R. Lippard, the most influential feminist art critic of the1970's; a critique of the masculinist bias implicit to modernism and explicitly recuperated by commercially successful artists during the 1980s; an exhaustive analysis of the curatorial failures operative in the "Bad Girls" museum exhibitions of the early 1990s; surveys of feminist-influenced art practices during the women's liberationist period; speculations on the current possibilities and obstacles that attend efforts to recover lesbian cultural history; and an examination of the life, work and obscuration of the early twentieth-century French photographer Claude Cahun.

This important new book examines contemporary art while foregrounding the key role feminism has played in enabling current modes of artmaking, spectatorship and theoretical discourse. Contemporary Art and Feminism carefully outlines the links between feminist theory and practice of the past four decades of contemporary art and offers a radical re-reading of the contemporary movement. Rather than focus on filling in the gaps of accepted histories by ‘adding’ the ‘missing’ female, queer, First Nations and women artists of colour, the authors seek to revise broader understandings of contemporary practice by providing case studies contextualised in a robust art historical and theoretical basis. Readers are encouraged to see where art ideas come from and evaluate past and present art strategies. What strategies, materials or tropes are less relevant in today’s networked, event-driven art economies? What strategies and themes should we keep hold of, or develop in new ways? This is a significant and innovative intervention that is ideal for students in courses on contemporary art within fine arts, visual studies, history of art, gender studies and queer studies.

Featuring a new package and an additional 60 pages of material, this revised edition of The Art of Feminism covers an even more impressive range of artworks, artists, movements, and perspectives. Since the debut of the original volume in 2018, The Art of Feminism has offered readers an in-depth examination of its subject that is still unparalleled in scope. The comprehensive survey traces the ways in which feminists—from the suffragettes and World War II–era workers through twentieth-century icons like Judy Chicago and Carrie Mae Weems to the contemporary cutting-edge figures Zanele Muholi and Andrea Bowers—have employed visual arts in transmitting their messages. With more than 350 images of art, illustration, photography, and graphic design, this stunning volume showcases the vibrancy of the feminist aesthetic over two centuries. The new, updated edition of the book features revised and expanded material in each of the book's original sections, as well as entirely new material dedicated to the art pieces that have shifted the landscape of feminist art today. This new material includes: women artists of the Bauhaus; grassroots and experimental curatorial efforts; a broader range of performance artists; and recent art shows and works, such as Kara Walker's Fons Americanus, which debuted at London's Tate Modern museum in 2020. UNIQUE IN SCOPE: The breadth and inclusiveness of this volume sets it apart and makes it the definitive book on international feminist art. The new edition brings the book into the current moment, ensuring that this groundbreaking volume remains relevant and fresh. It features an astonishing roster of artists, including: Barbara Kruger Sophie Calle Marina Abramovic Judy Chicago Faith Ringgold Cindy Sherman Ana Mendieta Zanele Muholi Mickalene Thomas Louise Bourgeois Shirin Neshat Andrea Bowers Pina Bausch JEB Amrita Sher-Gil Luchita Hurtado Ayana Jackson Patrisse Cullors EXPERT AUTHORS: Lead author Helena Reckitt has assembled a team of experts who are superbly qualified to unpack the rich history, power, and symbolism of feminist art for a new modern-day audience. UPDATED AND INCLUSIVE: This edition of the book features an even more diverse array of artists and artworks than the original, from the beautiful figurative paintings of Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil to the thoroughly researched and extravagantly costumed self-portraits of American photographer Ayana Jackson. Perfect for: Feminists and activists Art history lovers College and graduate students