How is feminism expressed? What forms does feminism take on a personal level (by an individual) or on a larger scale (by a society)?
How does gender inequality intersect with injustices related to race, ethnicity, religion, age, or other markers of identity (visible or invisible)?
What tactics have artists used to confront gender inequality?
The Guerrilla Girls is an activist group formed in 1985 whose members are female artists, curators, and writers. Their work focuses attention on gender and racial discrimination in the art world through demonstrations, performances, and “public service messages.” When Racism & Sexism are No Longer Fashionable, What Will Your Art Collection Be Worth?(1989) comments on the fact that many US museums have been built their collections around the work of white, male artists. The text suggests that their work has been overvalued—in the art market and culturally—while female artists and artists of color have been undervalued. Another work, The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist (1988) describes the frustrations and ironies of trying to succeed in a world that does not value your contributions. Using humor and data, it points to the systemic gender and racial bias in the works audiences see in museum collections.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, women in the United States mobilized to demand gender equality in their civic, educational, home, and professional lives. The women’s movement was part of a climate of social activism and questioning inspired by the civil rights movement and, later, by protests against the Vietnam War. The social activism of the period extended to the art world, as female artists began to confront and defy long-standing biases and traditional gender roles that had limited their careers.
Women in the art world were galvanized by a now-famous 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” by Linda Nochlin. She argued that the real issue was not that there were no great women artists, but rather that they were historically invisible, unknown, and fewer in number than men because of systematic obstruction to education, patronage, and opportunities to exhibit art. Nochlin’s essay led to new research resulting in the rediscovery of many long-forgotten women artists, a process that continues to this day.
While the 1970s contained many watershed moments in the women’s movement, incremental change has occurred over centuries. Research shows that female artists working prior to that time, during the 19th and 20th centuries, pioneered new forms and materials with which to express their ideas. They created works that gradually broadened the possibilities for art and its audiences, although their achievements sometimes took decades to register with mainstream culture. The widespread recognition of the work of female artists has accelerated as they continue to produce works that complicate and challenge our understandings of gender, identity, empowerment, and expression. From the innovative and powerful abstract paintings of Joan Mitchell and Alma Thomas, such as Salut Tom (1979) and Tiptoe Through the Tulips (1969), accorded recognition relatively late in each artist’s career; to Betye Saar’s tiny sculpture, Twilight Awakening (1978), which offers a reimagined and potent mythology with a Black protagonist; to Rozeal’s afro.died, T.(2011), a mash-up of culture and concepts of female beauty—their art conforms to no expectations.
Selected Works
Frances Clayton
Samuel Masury
c. 1865
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was one of the first armed conflicts documented by photography. Soldiers often had portraits made of themselves before they reported for duty. Such images, often produced in multiples approximately the size of a credit card, were small, portable, and inexpensive—ideal for sharing with loved ones. This photograph, taken in Samuel Masury’s Boston-based studio, is of Frances Clayton, a Minnesotan farmer and newly enlisted soldier; she is photographed in a Union army uniform. Clayton disguised her sex in order to join the army, which prohibited women from serving. It is thought that she served in a Missouri regiment alongside her husband, who died in battle. In the United States, women were not permitted to enlist in the military until 1917, during the last years of World War I. What does this image reveal to us about gender in the late 19th century? What ideas of gender are debated in the context of the military today?
Samuel Masury, Frances Clayton, c. 1865, albumen silver print (carte-de-visite), Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2019.97.2
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was one of the first armed conflicts documented by photography. Soldiers often had portraits made of themselves before they reported for duty. Such images, often produced in multiples approximately the size of a credit card, were small, portable, and inexpensive—ideal for sharing with loved ones. This photograph, taken in Samuel Masury’s Boston-based studio, is of Frances Clayton, a Minnesotan farmer and newly enlisted soldier; she is photographed in a Union army uniform. Clayton disguised her sex in order to join the army, which prohibited women from serving. It is thought that she served in a Missouri regiment alongside her husband, who died in battle. In the United States, women were not permitted to enlist in the military until 1917, during the last years of World War I. What does this image reveal to us about gender in the late 19th century? What ideas of gender are debated in the context of the military today?
Samuel Masury, Frances Clayton, c. 1865, albumen silver print (carte-de-visite), Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2019.97.1
In this painting, Mary Cassatt pictures a mother and child in an intimate domestic scene, perhaps in the mother’s bedroom. The girl’s nudity suggests that she may be fresh from her bath. The mother gently supports the child’s shoulder with one hand, holding up a hand mirror to the child with the other. Notice the multiple reflections produced by the mirrors, and how the artist repeats shapes, forms, and colors in the painting. You may also notice the large sunflower pinned to the woman’s dress, almost at the center of the painting: it is an emblem associated with the American women suffragist movement. The sunflower appeared on a suffragist badge advocating for women’s right to vote in the presidential election of 1904—about a year before this painting was made. Mary Cassatt was one of just three women (and the only American) to exhibit with the French impressionist painters. This influential art movement developed in Paris in the 1860s; the word “impression” described the artists’ intention of capturing moments from everyday life. How might the point of view of a female artist at this time affect her representation of everyday life?
Mary Cassatt, Woman with a Sunflower, c. 1905, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.98
Anna Hyatt Huntington is best known for bronze statuettes of exotic animals. The New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo) provided the artist with ready models and she challenged herself to capture the animals in motion, expressing their typical behavior, gait, or posture. Animal sculptures became the mainstay of her career, and she sold numerous casts first to individual collectors and eventually to major museums. Her ambitions grew with her success and she won a commission from New York City for a monumental equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, a popular symbol of female strength, independence, and suffrage. (The memorial remains on view in Riverside Park today.)
Anna Hyatt Huntington, Yawning Tiger, c. 1917, bronze, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the artist, 1939), 2015.19.3666
Anna Hyatt Huntington is best known for bronze statuettes of exotic animals. The New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo) provided the artist with ready models and she challenged herself to capture the animals in motion, expressing their typical behavior, gait, or posture. Animal sculptures became the mainstay of her career, and she sold numerous casts first to individual collectors and eventually to major museums. Her ambitions grew with her success and she won a commission from New York City for a monumental equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, a popular symbol of female strength, independence, and suffrage. (The memorial remains on view in Riverside Park today.)
Anna Hyatt Huntington, Elephant Running, n.d., bronze, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the artist, 1939), 2015.19.3668
Anna Hyatt Huntington is best known for bronze statuettes of exotic animals. The New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo) provided the artist with ready models and she challenged herself to capture the animals in motion, expressing their typical behavior, gait, or posture. Animal sculptures became the mainstay of her career, and she sold numerous casts first to individual collectors and eventually to major museums. Her ambitions grew with her success and she won a commission from New York City for a monumental equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, a popular symbol of female strength, independence, and suffrage. (The memorial remains on view in Riverside Park today.)
Huntington occasionally turned to more personal projects, as represented by this sensitive and dignified marble bust of her mother, Audella Beebe Hyatt (1840–1932). Audella was also an artist and encouraged Anna’s artistic talents. Sculptural busts of elder women are significantly less frequent than those of elder men.
Anna Hyatt Huntington, Head of My Mother, n.d., marble, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the artist, 1939), 2015.19.3669
Cecilia Beaux pictures her cousin Sarah (identified with the Spanish derivation of her given name, Sarita) seated on a sofa with her feline companion, Sita (Spanish for “little one”), in a moment of repose and reflection. You can imagine the cat’s slight weight on the woman’s shoulder, soft fur brushing her ear, while she absently reaches up to scratch the cat in turn. The understanding between the woman and her pet is underscored by the play of their names as well as their two sets of eyes in alignment: the cat looks out at us, while Sarita’s gaze is distant. Hair and fur pelt—glossy and dark—also blend together. The portrayal of a relaxed and intimate moment at home suggests a level of trust between the two women, sitter and painter. Beaux was a successful independent portraitist, among the few self-supporting women artists of the early 20th century. She traveled to Europe to pursue artistic training, spending time in Spain as well as France and England. What words would you use to describe the subject of this painting? Would you identify this work as an act of feminism? Why or why not?
Cecilia Beaux, Sita and Sarita, c. 1921, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund, 1923), 2014.79.1
Elizabeth Catlett created this commanding image of Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. 1820–1913), the Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist, pointing the way to freedom. Notice how the outsize figure of Tubman dominates the image, and how the bold and energetic black lines of the print suggest the perilous, fraught conditions Tubman and those under her protection navigated.
Catlett, who was the granddaughter of people who were enslaved, often focused on issues of Black and women’s history in her art. Her artistic influences included the social activism of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, which she learned about as a student at Howard University in Washington, DC. Another teacher, the American painter Grant Wood, encouraged her to draw upon what she knew best. “Of course, it was my own people,“ she noted.
At the time Catlett made this work, the civil rights movement was gaining ground in the United States. Why might Catlett have chosen to depict Harriet Tubman? What do Catlett’s artistic choices reveal about her perception of Tubman?
Elizabeth Catlett, Taller de Gráfica Popular, Untitled (Harriet Tubman), 1953, linocut, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Florian Carr Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation, 2008.115.37
This drawing depicts an example of needlework from the late 19th century. Young women made samplers to practice needle arts and to demonstrate different embroidery stitches. If you enlarge the drawing (which is colored with gouache paint), you will see that it is so fine and realistic that it almost appears to be a photograph. The sampler includes a brick house, likely the 14-year-old maker’s home, and a quote from 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope (with some incomplete letters): “Teach me to feel another’s woe / To hide the fault I see / In mercy I to Others show / That Mercy shows to me.”
This work is part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a body of 18,000 drawings that chronicle the history of American decorative art, folk art, and craft objects from the 17th century until nearly the turn of the 20th century. The IAD was a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), created during the Depression to provide employment to out-of-work people, including artists. There was a higher proportion of women working in the IAD project than in other federal art programs at the time, possibly indicating greater opportunity for women illustrators. These jobs were a small portion of the total WPA jobs created, the great majority of which were available in construction, building roads and infrastructure, and largely reserved for men.
Are there any activities in your own life that are viewed as belonging to a specific gender? How do you feel about this perception? If women artists were to continue to add work to the IAD today, how might the subject matter compare to these works of art?
Eileen Knox, Sampler, c. 1941, watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paperboard, Index of American Design, 1943.8.26
This drawing depicts an example of needlework from the late 19th century. Young women made samplers to practice needle arts and to demonstrate different embroidery stitches. If you enlarge the drawing, you will see that it is so fine and realistic that it almost appears to be a photograph. The sampler offers the sentiment “What is home without Mother,” signaling traditional ideas of the mother as the heart of the home and of domestic life in general.
This work is part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a body of 18,000 drawings that chronicle the history of American decorative art, folk art, and craft objects from the 17th century until nearly the turn of the 20th century. The IAD was a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), created during the Depression to provide employment to out-of-work people, including artists. There was a higher proportion of women working in the IAD project than in other federal art programs at the time, possibly indicating greater opportunity for women illustrators. These jobs were a small portion of the total WPA jobs created, the great majority of which were available in construction, building roads and infrastructure, and largely reserved for men.
Are there any activities in your own life that are viewed as belonging to a specific gender? How do you feel about this perception? If women artists were to continue to add work to the IAD today, how might the subject matter compare to these works of art?
Frank Maurer, Sampler, 1935/1942, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, Index of American Design, 1943.8.35
This drawing depicts an example of needlework from the late 19th century. Young women crocheted items that could decorate clothing, tablecloths, and curtains. If you enlarge the drawing, you will see that it is so fine and realistic that it almost appears to be a photograph.
This work is part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a body of 18,000 drawings that chronicle the history of American decorative art, folk art, and craft objects from the 17th century until nearly the turn of the 20th century. The IAD was a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), created during the Depression to provide employment to out-of-work people, including artists. There was a higher proportion of women working in the IAD project than in other federal art programs at the time, possibly indicating greater opportunity for women illustrators. These jobs were a small portion of the total WPA jobs created, the great majority of which were available in construction, building roads and infrastructure, and largely reserved for men.
Are there any activities in your own life that are viewed as belonging to a specific gender? How do you feel about this perception? If women artists were to continue to add work to the IAD today, how might the subject matter compare to these works of art?
Lena Nastasi, Crocheted Lace, c. 1936, pen and ink on paper, Index of American Design, 1943.8.491
Eighteen-year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant
Dorothea Lange
March 1937
Dorothea Lange’s photographs of people impacted by the Depression are her most well-known work. She wanted to show the public and politicians the reality and depth of the United States’ social and economic problems. Working for the Farm Security Administration, an agency created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to address the plight of farmers affected by the dust bowl, Lange made many photographs of migrants who traveled to California during the 1930s seeking agricultural work. Yet work was scarce, and often migrants ended up unemployed in encampments, some set up as public relief programs. Here a young mother sits in front of her government-issued tent with her child at her feet. Her expression communicates a toughness and a kind of resignation. Lange sometimes shared her photographs with newspapers in order to draw the public’s attention to people’s suffering. On one occasion, the publication of her photographs in the San Francisco News resulted in an outpouring of 20,000 pounds of food donations for malnourished migrant workers.
The role of color is of “paramount importance.” As Alma Thomas said, “through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness in my painting rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.” Thomas created this work when she was well into her seventies. The artist found inspiration in landscapes and flowers around her, which she stylized in shapes and patterns created with repeated, colorful brushstrokes. Her paintings are infused with personal memories and references; in this case, the work’s title refers not only to the springtime flowers that populate Washington, DC, where she lived, but also to the plucky song published in 1929 and famously recorded by Tiny Tim in 1968.
Although Thomas worked as an artist steadily her entire life, setting up a studio in her home, she was unable to make a living as an artist. As an African American woman who grew up in the South during the Jim Crow era, she experienced the additional weight of racism and segregation. Thomas chose one of the few options available to women who sought employment and financial independence: a degree in education, which she applied to a career of over 40 years teaching in Washington, DC, public schools, all the while painting during nights and on weekends. Upon retirement at age 69, she devoted herself full-time to art making. She realized a remarkable and productive “second act” in life, achieving visibility and, at age 80, a solo museum exhibition (at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York).
Consider your own community: Who are the artists around you? What can you find in your own environment that inspires you? Can you identify a text or song that shares the mood of this work of art?
Alma Thomas, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, 1969, acrylic on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Vincent Melzac, 1972), 2015.19.145
Miriam Schapiro was a pioneer of feminist art beginning in the 1970s. Feminist art gave visibility and voice to the particular conditions of women’s personal and socioeconomic lives. Schapiro’s etchings of crochet recall drawings of similar objects from the Index of American Design (IAD). Traditional, embroidered samplers and examples of fine crochet made by generations of young women—and visually documented in the IAD—embody conventional expressions of domesticity. Schapiro’s works slyly subvert those ideals while also paying homage to household labor and activities performed largely by women. This etching commands “Take a Seat,” with an image of a chair replacing the final word. It was part of a series that recognized the unseen and uncredited work of women in the home, whether sewing, mending, cooking, or cleaning.
Miriam Schapiro, Anonymous Was a Woman VII, 1977, softground etching printed in red ink on Arches paper, Gift of the Artist, 1979.9.8
Miriam Schapiro was a pioneer of feminist art beginning in the 1970s. Feminist art gave visibility and voice to the particular conditions of women’s personal and socioeconomic lives. Schapiro’s etchings of crochet recall drawings of similar objects from the Index of American Design (IAD). Traditional, embroidered samplers and examples of fine crochet made by generations of young women—and visually documented in the IAD—embody conventional expressions of domesticity. Schapiro’s works slyly subvert those ideals while also paying homage to household labor and activities performed largely by women. This etching looks like a bread doily through which some flour has left a corresponding grid. (The duplicate white image was created by putting the same plate, uninked, through the printing press.) The shape of the sampler also suggests a dollar bill—perhaps a pun on the word “bread,” as well as the idea that this was the only kind of “bread” women could make at certain points in history. This etching was part of a series that recognized the unseen and uncredited work of women in the home, whether sewing, mending, cooking, or cleaning.
Miriam Schapiro, Anonymous was a Woman V, 1977, softground etching in brown and debossing on Arches paper, Gift of the Artist, 1979.9.6
Laurie Simmons creates fictional tableaux which she carefully lights and photographs. Some are miniature scenes, such as this one of a woman/doll in a kitchen. While the picture looks like it could be a peek into a dollhouse, the way in which Simmons presents the scene suggests something off-kilter and discomfiting. The black-and-white photograph and its dramatic lighting evoke old Hollywood films of the mid-twentieth century. During that time, popular culture—including movies and toys—often reinforced gender stereotypes, depicting women in domestic roles. In Woman/Purple Dress/Kitchen, a clock shows the time as just after six o’clock: Is it early evening and the woman/doll awaits the arrival of her spouse? As is often the case with dollhouses, the proportions of the objects are slightly off. Here an array of baked goods, kitchen utensils, and a giant radio on the table are half as large as the woman/doll standing behind them.
Consider how you observe, internalize, and challenge gender roles in your life. Do you see any evidence of changing viewpoints in society? What are they?
Betye Saar is a Los Angeles–based artist who mingles personal history, mythology, and folk art to reflect upon her life and the African American experience. Twilight Awakening centers on a powerful central figure who hovers between the space of sea and land, the moon and star. The work’s symbology indicates that the figure is Aquarius, the Water Bearer. The signs of the zodiac derive from Roman antiquity, visualizing the passage of time through labor and activities associated with different times of the year. The work is a three-dimensional assemblage: it is made on a wooden base of a recycled printer’s block, to which Saar added scavenged and sculpted pieces of plastic, ceramic, and glass. These personal objects, bearing marks of use and history, lend a magical power to the tiny panel measuring only 3 ¾ × 4 ½ × ¾ inches. Who are the storytellers in your life? How do they share their stories?
Betye Saar, Twilight Awakening, 1978, mixed media on printer's wood block, Gift of Francine Farr in honor of Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis, with gratitude to Scripps College, Claremont, California, 2015.27.1
This picture consists of four panels that are 26 feet long altogether. The painting’s grand horizontal scale with its bright lemon-yellow background, white plumes in the middle ground, and green and blue textures suggest immersion in a sunny summer landscape, radiating light, open air, and nature. Mitchell said, “My paintings…aren’t about art issues. They’re about a feeling that comes to me from the outside, from landscape.” In what ways is it possible to visually portray intangible things like a feeling?
Do you think gender identity must be addressed or made visible in a woman’s work of art? What are the limitations that have been placed on women in all fields, historically and now?
Joan Mitchell, Salut Tom, 1979, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Women's Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Museum Purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1979), 2014.136.135
Quince años, Juchitán, México (Fifteen, Juchitán, Mexico)
Graciela Iturbide
1985, printed 1990
In this image, a girl is dressed formally for her fiesta de quince años, or quinceañera, to mark her entry into womanhood. This special recognition of the 15th birthday is a custom in Mexican and other Latin American cultures. Graciela Iturbide contrasts this celebration of emerging adulthood with the presence of the girl’s grandmother seated in the foreground, whose appearance suggests a life of hardship. The expressions of the two relatives are distant and difficult to read.
Iturbide is among the foremost figures in Mexican photography, known for her work documenting Indigenous cultures around the world. In 1978 the Instituto Nacional Indigenista hired her to photograph Mexico’s Indigenous populations. As part of that work, she traveled to Juchitán, whose inhabitants are of Zapotec heritage, with a matriarchal society. This photograph is from that project, collectively published as Juchitán de las Mujeres (1989).
Graciela Iturbide is among the foremost figures in Mexican photography, known for her work documenting Indigenous cultures around the world. In 1978 the Instituto Nacional Indigenista hired her to photograph Mexico’s Indigenous populations. As part of that work, she traveled to Juchitán, whose inhabitants are of Zapotec heritage, with a matriarchal society. This photograph is from that project, collectively published as Juchitán de las Mujeres (1989).
Iturbide’s practice involves immersing herself into the communities that she photographs. While shopping for groceries one day, she was approached by Magnolia, who wanted her picture taken. Magnolia was part of a community of muxes, individuals assigned male at birth but who identify as other genders. In some Indigenous cultures, muxes are considered a third gender and people with special powers. Magnolia holds a mirror up to her profile, doubling her image and suggesting the multiple ways that identity may be presented.
When Racism & Sexism are No Longer Fashionable, What Will Your Art Collection Be Worth?
Guerrilla Girls
1989
The Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous and ever-changing group of women artists, curators, and writers who use performances, public demonstrations, and visual art to advocate for greater representation of diverse artists in museums, galleries, art publications, and other creative pursuits. The Guerrilla Girls dress in full-body gorilla suits to perform guerrilla actions, such as protests, on behalf of women and other underrepresented groups in the art world. The costumes disguise their real identities and allow them to assume the pseudo-identities of famous women artists. This satirical gesture familiarizes women artists’ names while also preventing the individuals from being blackballed by the institutions against which they protest.
This lithograph is considered a fine art object, yet the image/text has been produced in different formats and materials to function as a protest poster, similar to what you might see in a demonstration or plastered on bus stop shelters or walls. The Guerrilla Girls collect data and statistics upon which they base their clever and boldly headlined messages about art world inequities. To date, approximately 11 percent of the artists represented in the National Gallery of Art collection are women.
Do you find this an effective form of activism to address sexism? Why or why not? What other methods have activists used today and in the recent past to address sexism?
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Know nothing, Believe anything, Forget everything), 1987/2014, digital print on vinyl, Gift of the Collectors Committee, Sharon and John D. Rockefeller IV, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Denise and Andrew Saul, Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund, Agnes Gund, and Michelle Smith, 2014.38.1
This close-up self-portrait by Myra Greene addresses the complexity of how we see other people and what we can know by seeing them. The photograph isolates and fragments a part of Greene’s face, denying us the ability to see her as a whole. The work intentionally uses a vintage photography technique called ambrotype to allude to a 19th-century version of racial profiling in which photography was used to classify facial features to support white supremacy. This photograph is part of a series titled Character Recognition. Greene began this project in 2006, noting, “Confronted with an up swell of bigotry both personal and public, I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life?”
This close-up self-portrait by Myra Greene addresses the complexity of how we see other people and what we can know by seeing them. The photograph isolates and fragments a part of Greene’s face, denying us the ability to see her as a whole. The work intentionally uses a vintage photography technique called ambrotype to allude to a 19th-century version of racial profiling in which photography was used to classify facial features to support white supremacy. This photograph is part of a series titled Character Recognition. Greene began this project in 2006, noting, “Confronted with an up swell of bigotry both personal and public, I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life?”
This close-up self-portrait by Myra Greene addresses the complexity of how we see other people and what we can know by seeing them. The photograph isolates and fragments a part of Greene’s face, denying us the ability to see her as a whole. The work intentionally uses a vintage photography technique called ambrotype to allude to a 19th-century version of racial profiling in which photography was used to classify facial features to support white supremacy. This photograph is part of a series titled Character Recognition. Greene began this project in 2006, noting, “Confronted with an up swell of bigotry both personal and public, I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life?”
This etching is part of a series—An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters—whose six works refer to the transatlantic slave trade. Its title, no world, may be a pun on “New World,” referring to dislocation and an in-between state. The image, resembling an illustration from a graphic novel, communicates a narrative of mythological proportion. The sailing ship, alluding to a vessel used in the forced transport of African people to the Americas, is being lifted out of heaving seas by giant black hands. A dramatic column of black and white clouds clash in the sky above, suggesting conflict, while beneath the water, a floating female figure faces downward. A long wave moves toward the shore, upon which stand two distant, caricatured silhouetted figures with some spindly plants, perhaps a reference to the 19th-century agricultural economy that depended on the labor of enslaved people. Kara Walker’s work addresses the violent, traumatic history of slavery and its legacy. A female figure is a prominent part of this work. Why might Walker have made the choice to include this figure, and to give her prominence in the foreground?
Kara Walker, Greg Burnet, Burnet Editions Master Printers, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., no world, 2010, color etching, drypoint, and aquatint with sugarlift and spitbite on Hahnemühle Copperplate wove paper, Donald and Nancy de Laski Fund, 2015.42.1
Artist Lee Seung-Hee adopted an Americanized name, Nikki S. Lee, when she moved to the United States from South Korea. In this photograph, we see the time-honored ritual of talking and applying makeup in the ladies’ room. The image even has an orange time stamp that dates it to June 14, 1998.
Lee’s photographs are a component of a larger, performance-based project begun in New York City to explore a range of self-identifying cultures, some based on gender or race, others on intersecting music, fashion, or professional subcultures. Over a period of months, Lee would assimilate herself into a particular group, forming relationships and building trust. Next, she transformed herself through dress, makeup, and gesture so that she appeared to be a member of that culture. She then documented her inclusion in the group by giving her point-and-shoot camera to one of her new friends. In this image, we see Lee in the foreground applying lip liner.
What questions does this image raise about group identity and acceptance, whether based on culture or gender?
Nikki S. Lee, The Hispanic Project (6), 1998, chromogenic print, Gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, 2011.144.15
Rozeal. (formerly known as iona rozeal brown)
2011
Rozeal uses the title of this work, a play on Aphrodite, ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, to present a cross-cultural rebellion on beauty ideals that traverses the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Rozeal spent time in Japan through a fellowship program and became interested in the ganguro style, whereby young Japanese women counter traditional beauty norms by wearing skin-darkening makeup, dying their long hair blonde, and applying long nail tips. As a DJ and performance artist, Rozeal underscores ganguro’s references to African American hip-hop culture—seen in the words “back and forth” repeated in the background, a quotation from the song “Whip My Hair” by Willow Smith, while music discs frame the figure. The stylized appearance and pose of the figure recall Japanese 19th-century ukiyo-e prints, which traditionally depict a fantasy world of nightlife and geisha. What does beauty mean to you? What does this work of art make you think about women in your own community and culture?
Rozeal. (formerly known as iona rozeal brown), afro.died, T., 2011, acrylic, pen, ink, marker, and graphite on birch plywood panel, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase with funds provided by the Women's Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art), 2015.19.243
This delicate work, smaller than a standard sheet of paper, is carefully constructed from fibers. Sheila Hicks has built a long career exploring the intersections between so-called fine art and textiles. In so doing, she has brought artistic practices like weaving and tapestry, which are often denigrated as crafts and women’s work, into the mainstream. Hicks enrolled at the Yale School of Art during the 1950s and studied with Josef Albers, an abstract artist and color theorist originally from Germany. As a student, Hicks also became acquainted with the work of Albers’s wife, Anni Albers, considered one of the foremost textile artists and designers of the 20th century. A grant to study painting in Chile sparked Hicks’s interest in Indigenous textile traditions and led her to embark on a self-guided tour through every country of South America. During her nomadic career, she has developed fiber arts workshops in Mexico, Chile, and South Africa. Today she works largely from a studio in Paris. Hicks’s work spotlights the time and labor that textile arts entail—hours spent in repetitive motions and gestures to create pliable forms that reveal the traces of their making. Although bound by their structure, her works often appear remarkably free and expressive. Modestly scaled works, such as, Embedded Thoughts, made of narrow strips of fragile paper wrapped in tiny threads of silk, serve as “sketches” in which the artist works through experimental ideas. Are there any traditions that have been passed down among women in your community or culture? Do you participate in these traditions? Why or why not?
Sheila Hicks, Embedded Thoughts, 2013, silk wrapped paper, wool, cotton, linen, Gift of Roy and Cecily Langdale Davis, 2014.134.1
Betye Saar, Twilight Awakening, 1978, mixed media on printer's wood block, Gift of Francine Farr in honor of Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis, with gratitude to Scripps College, Claremont, California, 2015.27.1
Ask students to examine the works of art in the image set and pair what they see as related works. Students might consider some of the following characteristics (or come up with their own):
Mood—expressive, controlled, bold, quiet
Techniques and materials—how was the work of art made?
Subject—person, place, thing
Setting—public, private, ambiguous
Your interpretation of the works’ meaning
A story you create that links two works
Call on individual students to share their pairings (to the entire class) or, alternatively, ask them to share in small group settings.
In the 1970s, the slogan “The personal is political” became popular among feminists. This phrase connected women’s experiences—in the home or workplace—to larger social structures where gender bias played out. For women artists, limited opportunities to show their work and under-recognition were often connected. Ask students to review the image set and place each work of art into one of two categories:
a. Works that convey a political or feminist message b. Works that reflect the artist’s personal experience
For works of art that appear to have a “message,” prompt students to explain what they think it is. How does the artist’s choice of color, shape, line, and artistic technique or medium (painting, photograph, sculpture, etc.) contribute to that meaning?
For works that appear to express a more personal experience, have students research the artist’s biography. What challenges did she face? Were they personal challenges (such as particular life events) or larger societal ones (such as laws)?
Ask your students whether any of the political messages or personal experiences conveyed in these images resonate with them as challenges today.
Activity: A Woman's World?
Samuel Masury, Frances Clayton, c. 1865, albumen silver print (carte-de-visite), Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2019.97.1
Samuel Masury, Frances Clayton, c. 1865, albumen silver print (carte-de-visite), Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2019.97.2
Women have rejected, accepted, pushed against, and embraced the ideals and traditional cultural expectations of homemaking and domesticity, motherhood and child-rearing, and femininity and physical appearance. Ask students:
How do you see women’s relationships to those situations expressed in these works of art? Which of these situations would you reject, accept, push against, or embrace? Think of people in your life who may have embraced different norms.
How might female artists differ from male artists in their representation of women as subjects? Think about what ideas, issues, and points of view are expressed or made visible in the image set. What are some current examples of gendered points of view from art or media?
Activity: Gender and Artistic Expression
Sheila Hicks, Embedded Thoughts, 2013, silk wrapped paper, wool, cotton, linen, Gift of Roy and Cecily Langdale Davis, 2014.134.1
“The state of female artists is very good. But the very definition of art has been biased in that ‘art’ was what men did in a European tradition and ‘crafts’ were what women and natives did.” —Gloria Steinem
Here, feminist icon Gloria Steinem points out that there is no shortage of women and Indigenous artists—but that pervasive notions of what counts as “art” have excluded them from mainstream recognition. Steinem calls out the ways in which materials and subjects can be assigned different cultural values.
Art materials and forms have acquired gendered associations over time. For example, oil painting and sculpture were once framed as high-minded masculine pursuits valued more highly than other artistic media. Practices such as quilting, sewing, or weaving that produced utilitarian objects were relegated to the female and domestic sphere. Works on paper—including watercolor and drawing, which often use less expensive materials—have been associated with female pursuits, taught along with embroidery and sewing as part of a girl’s genteel education. Works executed using these materials have also been viewed as “supporting” work—preparation for oil painting, sculpture, or architecture—rather than as independent art forms. The subjects of works of art have also reflected biases. In much Western and European art, historical and mythological narratives were highly valued and intellectualized, while those relating to daily or home life, most often, were not.
In modern and contemporary art, feminist artists have challenged these value judgments. They have embraced a broad variety of materials and treated new subjects, creating works that have made women’s experiences, accomplishments, and lives visible.
Invite students to examine the works of art in the image set, reading the descriptions and learning about the artists’ lives and works. How do their choices of art materials or subject relate to or challenge cultural ideas about gender?
How do visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance explore black identity and political empowerment? How does visual art of the Harlem Renaissance relate to current-day events and issues? How do migration and displacement influence cultural production?
Artists in the United States are protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedoms of speech and press. This module features works created by artists with a range of perspectives and motivations.
