Existing comment:
"The personal is political."
-- The Redstocking feminist group, Denmark, 1969-70
Visual art in the 1970s reflected the dramatic political and cultural shifts that were occurring worldwide. In the United States, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights and Women's Movements, and growing concern for the environment presented serious challenges to mainstream values. Within this political atmosphere, feminism had a significant impact on the lives of women artists and their work. Feminist artists and activists protested the unequal representation of women in museums, galleries, and publications. Colleges and universities responded by introducing women's studies curricula and feminist art history classes.
Seeking an essential type of imagery that could form the core of feminist art, some artists created abstracted symbols that reference the female sexual body. Artists worldwide developed a broader scope for feminist art, mirroring the movement's larger goals to validate all of women's experiences. Feminist artists worked in traditional fine art media such as painting and sculpture, but they also attained critical recognition for weaving, sewing, and assemblage, processes that had previously been classified as handicrafts. Feminist artists were also proponents for experimental art forms such as performance, video, and installation art.
Feminist art put great emphasis on subjective experience, and content often reflected artists' sexuality and body image, their personal experiences within both the domestic and professional spheres, and their critiques of popular culture. Much feminist art was also representational, setting it apart from the abstract styles that were critically popular in the 1950s and 60s. Indeed, some critics have credited feminist art with reintroducing figuration as a valid option for artists to pursue in the late twentieth century. |