Makenna Casady

Hour 1
11/15/15

Feminist Art Research Paper

There have always been women artists throughout history, though not until recent times
were they allowed to explore their craft with less fear of ridicule, violence, or erasure. Feminism
is the belief that all people are entitled to the same civil rights and liberties and can be
intellectual equals regardless of gender. Individual works of art can suggest or inspire feminist
ideals without having come from a self-proclaimed Feminist. Feminism challenges the
societally-imposed systems that disproportionately affect women and minorities; this affliction is
just as present in the art world as it is any other area of life.
The term feminism was coined in the 1890s in english by the philosopher and early
socialist thinker Charles Fourier. Deriving from the french word feminisme, it describes both
the idea and movement towards equality between genders that gained a foothold in a post French
Revolutionary War Europe with the first Women's Conference held in Seneca Falls, New York, in
1848. However, it would not be until the early 1960s during a post WWII America that SecondWave Feminism would begin to take hold and spread throughout the western world and beyond.
It was during WWII that empowerment of women in the workforce began in America.
Out of necessity women were encouraged to take up jobs in factory positions that would have
otherwise been given to men, if not for most able-bodied men in the country having been drafted
into the war. Propaganda was produced to spread the word of these opportunities for women to
aid their country. Perhaps the most famous example was created by graphic artist J. Howard
Miller, the evocative We Can Do It! poster depicting a woman in work clothes flexing a bicep

towards the viewer, with the titular call to action issuing from her in a speech bubble. A bright
photolithograph poster printed on paper in 1942, the image was mostly posted in a single factory
building. Later on it would be rediscovered by historians and made into a pop culture icon by the
feminist movement. Regardless, this era of time when women were taking roles intended for men
and excelling in them would open the door for greater opportunities for women in other lines of
work.
Women have been making art to describe their experiences in social and political life
even before the concept of feminism was popularized. One such artist was none other than Frida
Kahlo. She created numerous self-portraits throughout her life, depicting symbolistic images that
she made as one of her few forms of self-expression. She created a name for herself, independent
of her abusive ex-husband, and lead a very untraditional lifestyle for women of her time. Her
piece, Roots illustrates her style of painting and way that she saw herself and her struggles.
The painting is an oil on canvas and depicts her, lying on the ground with roots coming from her
abdomen to plant themselves in the ground and sprout leaves. She meant it to be symbolic of her
inability to have children and create life. Though she never described herself as feminist or
producing feminist art, her work did inspire many women of the Second-Wave Feminist
Movement, thirty years after her death, to create art to describe their personal experiences and
express feminist ideas.
What this meant for the western art world was that women were becoming more
emboldened in their efforts to breakthrough to the mainstream art world that was dominated by
male artists. The realm of graphic design is what drew one influential artist of the feminist art
movement, Barbara Kruger. Her distinctive style of using found photographs, bold text and
simple monochrome color schemes with a hint of red for contrast developed during the early

80s, after she had stopped using her own photography skills in her works. The use of popular
images and warping of familiar idioms makes her commercially subversive style easily
recognizable. In one piece by her, left untitled like many of her other works but recognizable by
the words in bold Your Body is a Battleground, is a good summary of her unique style and
message. The poster is meant to be displayed large, enough to fill a wall, and has the texture of a
silkscreen print on vinyl. The juxtaposition of mainstream images often coming from magazines
and similar media with a text criticism added by the artist force the viewer to question their
views on many social and political structures, such as feminism, sexism, consumerism, and
individuality. The style reminds one of the simple graphic style of Andy Warhol, but is
exceptional in its own right. In fact, when asked about Warhol and what influence he may have
had on her work, she had this to say, "Warhol's images made sense to me, although I knew
nothing at the time of his background in commercial art. To be honest, I didn't think about him a
hell of a lot."
A desire to break free from what society has deemed appropriate attitudes and roles for
women to fulfill has been a driving force behind any feminist movement. This has lead to
criticisms of feminist artists as being too abrasive, though that summation is just what a group
called The Guerrilla Girls have wholly embraced for the past thirty years. Their goal is to address
and combat the discrepancy in numbers present for women in just about every field, where the
men that have always been accepted into those spaces greatly outnumber the women. In one of
their works, which was printed as a recital of a simple statistic and has now been coveted for
original copies, was a silkscreen poster titled Do women have to be naked to get into the Met.
Museum? It displays on a harsh yellow canvas a nude female figure wearing a guerrilla mask,
posing the question and protesting the fact that, Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Arts

Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female. Through unusual imagery backed up by
truth, they hope to gain recognition and expose the gender and racial biases present in the art
world. The anonymity given by the masks gives the members of this group protection from the
violence that is routinely directed at any feminist group that aims to create change. Their goal is
not for their informational (though aesthetically pleasing) ads to become their artistic legacy, but
rather to use their fame to promote a more equal artistic environment in the museums and
galleries they attend. Change is coming slowly, but the long term effects of female exclusion in
the art world will be obvious for years to come.
Achievements made by feminists have always been due to a team effort, and this idea is
displayed both in content and process by artist Judy Chicago in her collaborative piece The
Dinner Party. The piece is mixed media, a triangular dinner table with ornate plates spaced apart
and adding up to a total of 39, with the names of culturally important historical and fictional
women inscribed in the tablecloth at each seat. From start to finish the display took five years to
complete with a team of women working for her. It is an impressive tribute to womens history,
but unfortunately has been subject to controversy. The artist failed to pay her employees that
worked with her on the project, one of a few factors leading to the decline in her career.
Currently the piece remains in storage, and will likely stay there until Judy Chicagos death.
Even so, as long as it is intact the display will continue to illustrate the achievements made by
women, in the past and to the modern era.
More recently, feminist and social equality movements have seemed to be gaining
momentum yet again. Whenever there are societal stresses surrounding women and minorities,
those groups have been shown to push back to make themselves heard and appreciated in the
eyes of the majority. People join these movements in order to leave a lasting impact on the

culture they grew up in, so that others after them may grow up in a slightly better world. Art is an
expression of one's culture; the way we perceive the world influences how we express our
thoughts on an integral level. For women and minorities, their experiences are inherently
different from the majority of white men in America because of the social institutions that have
prevented them from excelling in all the areas they have proven beyond a doubt that they are just
as capable in as their white male colleagues. Until there is a reliable 50/50 split in skilled labor
between men and women, the art world, among most other areas of life and work, will remain a
burgeoning field for women and minorities. Until then, there have and will continue to be many
calls advocating for change, and some of the most meaningful voices may come from a work of
feminist art.

Bibliography
Source 1: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-feminist-art.htm
Source 2: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/
Source 3: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/20thcentury_feministartists.html
Source 4: http://www.artnews.com/2014/07/14/saving-frida-kahlo-from-her-own-celebrity/
Source 5: http://www.fridakahlo.org/roots.jsp
Source 6: http://courses.washington.edu/femart/final_project/wordpress/frida-kahlo/
Source 7: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_538122
Source 8: http://www.history.com/news/inspiration-for-iconic-rosie-the-riveter-image-dies
Source 9: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html
Source10: http://www.thebroad.org/art/barbara-kruger/untitled-your-body-battleground
Source 11: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/29/the-guerrilla-girls-interviewart-world-sexism
Source 12: http://flavorwire.com/273653/10-famous-feminist-artworks/1