Contemporary Female Artists

  All throughout history women in art have been pictured batteling male patriarchy and oppression in order to discover their own voices. Female artists have been constantly try to break the social stigmas placed on them through gender, race and class. Through their artwork, female artists portrayed social issues of the time, shedding light on the oppression they faced. Art provided a development in social, cultural and even economic aspects of life, and encouraged the reinterpretation past ideologies. Female artists were instrumental in the development of these main themes because they were able to portray the harsh realities of women from personal perspectives. The various styles of art among women shaped the significance of touched on a variety of social obstacles, shedding light on the issues at time.

Mickalene Thomas: Racial Oppression

Mickalene Thomas, A Little Taste Outside of Love, 2007

Mickalene Thomas is an inspirational contemporary artist of a more modern time. Her work portrays and represents black women being objectified, taking inspiration from some of her mother’s photos from the 1970’s. The 1970’s was the time of The Black Power Movement, which was a political and social movement. Advocates such as Mickalene Thomas and her mother fought for equality for all African Americans, having a strong sense of racial pride. Her art challenges objectification towards black women throughout this time period. Her piece A Little Taste Outside Love, portrays an African American woman being caught as she is passively observing her own beauty. This piece is iconic because usually Western white women are the main attraction portrayed in nude art, while women of color are portrayed as maidservants.  Not only that but the influence of the 70’s and Black Power movement is actually depicted within the small details of this piece (hairstyle and patterns). By making a woman of color the the main subject of a nude painting, Thomas brings forth changes depicted in traditional Western European Paintings. 

Shirin Neshat: Gender Roles

Shirin Neshat, Turbulent, 1998

Shirin Neshat an Iranian women begins to portray the issues of gender roles within her piece Turbulent (1988). This piece portrays performing a piece with an audience full of men. As he is singing his back is turned away from them. The man is seen to be comfortable and confident within his performance as he is sure that he will be accepted by his fellow male audience. On the other hand, Shirin is seen enacting the same performance in an empty audience because her voice will not be accepted, as a woman is not allowed to perform. Being a woman, especially in Iran where gender roles are certainly very prominent, women tend to be more oppressed within every aspect of their lives. This is actually relatable due to my Egyptian background and the severe preceence of male patriarchy. When I visited Egypt this summer, as a woman I was not allowed to do anything on my own. I always to be accompanied by a male in order to be "safe" according to my Egyptian family who was used to the male oppression.  I for one was not accustomed to this treatement at all and began to become extremely frustrated with the way their "traditional" mentality, suggesting that a woman is more vulnerable without a man by her side. Shirin Neshat is trying to break those gender norms as she moved to America, depicting her constant struggles of male patriarchy within her art. Neshat begins to advocate and give women a voice of their own, without the permission or acceptance of men. 

Kara Walker: Black History 

Kara Walker African't 1996

Walker’s African’t portrays massive silhouettes all over the walls of the gallery depicting real and conceived activities of black history, almost as a timeline. Each silhouette appeals to portray our mangled image of history and the struggles we tend to overlook or forget. When in reality African Americans are still facing the same everyday struggles they have in the past, only now there are just new names for old terms. For one more recent example, mass incarceration is said to be the New Jim Crow. Walker’s silhouettes portray a plantation owner's sex act with a slave to many stereotypical acts portrayed in films. She characterizes the difference between slaves and their owners through clothing, hair texture and facial features. The most gruesome image of the bunch is the one of a black nude woman vomiting up bones. Some see this as a jab towards  “cannibals” while others portray it is a metaphor for male patriarchy being burdened upon women.  Her art is utterly unique within its details and portrayal of African American struggle throughout history. 

Marina Abramovic: Vulnerabillity 

Marina Abramovic, Imponderabilia, 1977

Marina Abramovic was a Serbian artist which my liking for her work might be a little bias due to my best friend being Serbian as well. Marina states, “I never see the difference between a man and woman. I always say, “yes I’m a female, but I’m an artist.” Abramovic portrays her art in such a unique matter by using herself as the main attraction. Abramović refers to herself as the "grandmother of performance art.” Her performance Imponderabilia involved her and and a man being nude, standing in the entryway of a museum in Italy forcing people to pass through them. The significance in this piece lies in the way she allows herself to be completely vulnerable in the eyes of the public. The public is then faced with the decision of whether to go through them and the decision of which person they will face as they pass, male or female.  Abramovic created a new belief of identity by allowing live observers watch her performances. She focuses on "confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body." She writes “Each time I would do a performance, I would use it as a tool to actually deal with my emotions, to stage my feelings, and to go through the things I was afraid of” (Abramovic) To her, performance was a guided communication with the public making her one of the most unique contemporary artists. 

Faith Ringgold And Betye Saar: African American Rights

Betye Saar The Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972

A little less modern but still very important in the contemporary art world are the works of Faith Ringgold And Betye Saar. Their paintings specifically focused attention on the distance between the black community and American Mainstream through their paintings. Ringgold’s painted mural of a street riot was influenced by the 1930’s realism style. Betye Saar’s images and collages depicted stereotypical images of African Americans. Betye Saar The Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972 was a political and angry piece portraying white cultures stereotypical images of blacks. She is portrayed carrying a revolver in one hand and a rifle in the other in a box papered with "mammy" pictures" (Chadwick 243). Aunt Jemima is bloomed into a content maidservant to a proud militant, a role woman could not play in the past due to gender roles. The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is an example of how women use their art in order to break out of traditions and norms deemed as mandatory by men all throughout history. 

Faith Ringgold Die 1967

                                                                            Work Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.