CONTEMPORARY ART BY WOMEN ARTISTS

            CONTEMPORARY ART BY WOMEN ARTISTS

        Judy Chicago, The Dinner party 1974

Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist who always supported and stood up for the gender equality and rights.  The Dinner Party is a vital part of 1970's feminist art and a milestone in 20th-century's art. The Dinner Party includes a sizeable ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of 39 plates settings, each plate mean essential women from history.  Also on the floor 999 more names displayed of those women. Throughout my learning experience in art and women class, I tend to notice different angle, shapes, and colors and put them invaluable perspective as they all illustrate deeper meaning hidden in these art pieces. The Dinner Party is formed in a triangle shape which to me seems like a representation of the women vagina. The plates were ceramic, and they were arranged in a very strategical way portraying past to present, as such from modernism to postmodernism. During my visit to the museum, I noticed that those plates were displaying different forms of a vagina. Apparently, in my understanding, the purpose of it was to show the world that women are not a sexual object they hold more value in society than just be seen as an object.

                                            Yoko Ono,Cut Piece,1964

Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, speaker, and peace activists who also is known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. Ono engage with her audience in a personal manner as she performed in front of the audience.  Ono made this performance as she wants to teach the audience that the equality of gender and race was important for society. The cut piece performance was how Ono sat alone on a stage, dressed in a suit, with scissors in front of her. She gave the scissors to the audience, and the audience started to cut her dress. Some of the people approached nicely by just cutting a small square of her elegant dress. However, others came boldly, snipping away the front of her blouse or the straps of her bra. Some attendance approached hesitantly, and other came boldly.  Ono uses the symbol of scissors to represent the equality of gender and race. Ono tried to describe the audience that doesn't treat women as an object because it's not the right way of handling women. She intended to shed light on the fact that women deserve to be treated in a respected manner.

Betye Saar The Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972

Betye Saar is an American artist known for her work in the media association. Betye Saar challenges the dominance of male artist with the Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972. This piece is a three-dimensional sculpture made from objects and in mixed media. Saar also includes a knick-knack she found of Aunt Jemima. The original Jemima was base on a pencil and brush. However, she decided to change the pen for a gun. The reason Saar did it was because she wants to take the attention of people. Lastly, the black women carry a white baby Saar put it as the representation of slave meaning how blacks were continuing to serve the white people. In short, The message behind the gun was the “black power”  and the equality of gender.

                                Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988

Piper chose to make this letter video to protest against inequality towards race and power. In her video, she expresses her thoughts and opinions directly to the viewers. Piper is white but decides to fight for people of color.  She raised her voice about the matter of inequality amongst individuals who are labeled as different and treated differently based on their color. In brief, she feels that her racial identity is black as she wants to show the audience. She believes that color shouldn't matter it is the person who matters.

      Barbara Kruger, Its is all about me, I Mean You, I Mean Me,2010

Barbara Kruger is an American visionary artist and collagist. Most of her work is consist of black and white images. Kruger decided to portray the body of nude Kim Kardashian and overseas three concise statements. The overlaid text provide expression of female toughest freely. The first assertions “It is all about me” The following thought creates contradiction” I mean you.” It shows how the bold images and bright red color provides a voice through a female figure. Barbara's message was to protest against patriarchy man for the equality of gender and the free expression.

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.