Post-Modern Art in 20th-century U.S. Art WEEK 13

  • Period: to

    Feminist Art Post Modernism

  • Artist: Yoko Ono; Title: Cut Piece; Date: 1964 (first performance); Media: Performance art; Dimensions: Variable; Repository: N/A (performance art, documentation exists in various collections)

    Artist: Yoko Ono; Title: Cut Piece; Date: 1964 (first performance); Media: Performance art; Dimensions: Variable; Repository: N/A (performance art, documentation exists in various collections)

    This pioneering work is significant for its role in the development of performance and conceptual art, challenging the traditional passive relationship between artist and viewer. A major characteristic is audience participation, where viewers were invited to cut away pieces of the artist's clothing as she sat passively on stage. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1494#:~:text=During%20the%20first%2011%20years,later%20Ono%20made%20Film%20No.
  • Martha Rosler, Bringing the War Back Home, 1967-1972 Series of twelve cut-and-pasted printed paper on board

    Martha Rosler, Bringing the War Back Home, 1967-1972 Series of twelve cut-and-pasted printed paper on board

    This work was important to the anti-war movement as well as feminist artists of the period because it directly contrasted the ideal American domestic environment with the harsh realities of the Vietnam War, which had entered many homes through TV news programs. The two main features of the work are the photomontage technique employed to comment on consumption of media images and government propaganda about the war. https://curatednow.ca/tag/martha-rosler-art/
  • Artist: VALIE EXPORT; Title: Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic); Date: 1968; Media: Performance and photograph.

    Artist: VALIE EXPORT; Title: Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic); Date: 1968; Media: Performance and photograph.

    The artwork is a seminal piece of feminist performance art, challenging the traditional representation of women in art and society by actively confronting the male gaze and public space. Its major characteristics involve the artist's use of her own body in a public setting to provoke a reaction, exploring themes of female sexuality, autonomy, and the transgression of social norms. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/151065#:~:text
  • Mary Beth Edelson, Some Living American Women Artists, 1972, poster mock-up, Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints with crayon and transfer type on printed paper with typewriting on cut-and-taped paper, MoMA

    Mary Beth Edelson, Some Living American Women Artists, 1972, poster mock-up, Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints with crayon and transfer type on printed paper with typewriting on cut-and-taped paper, MoMA

    The artwork is a significant piece of feminist art from the second-wave feminist movement, aiming to identify and commemorate women artists who were largely unrecognized at the time. It challenges the patriarchy by spoofing Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, replacing the male figures with prominent women artists, such as Georgia O'Keeffe in the central position of Christ, and surrounding the main image with over 80 more photographs of women artists. https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/1988
  • Artist: Marina Abramović, Title: Rhythm 0, Date: 1974, Media: Performance art.

    Artist: Marina Abramović, Title: Rhythm 0, Date: 1974, Media: Performance art.

    Rhythm 0 is a canonical work of performance art that explores the limits of the human body and the dark side of human nature when given free rein. The major characteristics include audience participation and extreme vulnerability, as Abramović allowed the public to use 72 objects on her in any way they wished for six hours, revealing how quickly people can resort to violence in the absence of consequences. https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/checklist/invest
  • Lynn Hershman Roberta’s Construction Chart #1 1975, printed 2015 Photograph, inkjet print 20” x 14” SFMoMA

    Lynn Hershman Roberta’s Construction Chart #1 1975, printed 2015 Photograph, inkjet print 20” x 14” SFMoMA

    As an early pioneer of new media artworks, Lynn Hershman Leeson explores the moral and ethical quandaries raised in a culture obsessed with technology and artifice. This work specifically plays with stereotypical beauty ideals, transforming a photograph of the artist as her alter ego Roberta Breitmore through annotations and drawn lines of "suggested alterations". https://www.moma.org/collection/works/147308#:~:text=Hershman
  • Laurie Simmons Black & White Interiors 1976 Laurie

    Laurie Simmons Black & White Interiors 1976 Laurie

    The artwork is a black and white photograph depicting a female doll in a dollhouse kitchen, exploring themes of domesticity, gender roles, and the construction of identity. Simmons's work is significant to the art movement as it challenged traditional photography standards by using staged, artificial scenes and miniature props to comment on cultural tropes and consumerism. https://www.metmuseum.org/zh/art/collection/search/285415
  • Artist: Karin Mack, Title: Zerstörung einer Illusion (Destruction of an Illusion), Date: 1977, Media: vintage gelatin silver print, Dimensions: approx. 17.8 x 23.8 cm, Repository: The SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna.

    Artist: Karin Mack, Title: Zerstörung einer Illusion (Destruction of an Illusion), Date: 1977, Media: vintage gelatin silver print, Dimensions: approx. 17.8 x 23.8 cm, Repository: The SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna.

    The artwork is significant to the feminist avant-garde movement of the 1970s because it explores themes of unrealistic ideals of female beauty and the constraints placed upon women by domestic expectations and societal conventions. A major characteristic is the use of the artist's own body as a canvas and the juxtaposition of domestic objects (kitchen utensils) with the female form to critique traditional gender roles. https://apollo-magazine.com
  • udy Chicago The Dinner Party 1979, mixed media installation, collection of the Brooklyn Museum, gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation

    udy Chicago The Dinner Party 1979, mixed media installation, collection of the Brooklyn Museum, gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation

    The Dinner Party is an iconic work of feminist art that honors the history of women in Western civilization, a subject largely overlooked in traditional historical narratives. The work uses materials and techniques historically associated with "women's work," such as china painting and needlework, to challenge the hierarchy of art forms and celebrate female experience and iconography. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/collection/dinner-party-components/curatorial-overview
  • Artist: Barbara Kruger; Title: Untitled (Your body is a battleground); Date: 1989; Media: Photographic silkscreen on vinyl; Dimensions: 112 x 112 inches (284.5 x 284.5 cm); Repository: The Broad, Los Angeles.

    Artist: Barbara Kruger; Title: Untitled (Your body is a battleground); Date: 1989; Media: Photographic silkscreen on vinyl; Dimensions: 112 x 112 inches (284.5 x 284.5 cm); Repository: The Broad, Los Angeles.

    The artwork also has importance in the feminist movement because it was produced in support of the Women’s March on Washington in 1989 in protest of anti-abortion legislation. The main attributes of the work are the reused black and white photographs combined with graphic text in a style that expresses the imitation and parody of corporate advertising. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artwork-changed-life-barbara-krugers-untitled-body-battleground
  • Candice Breitz, Rainbow Series, 1996, photomontage

    Candice Breitz, Rainbow Series, 1996, photomontage

    The series is significant for its exploration of racial power relations and postcolonial identity through the use of mimicry and masquerade. A major characteristic is the use of costuming and repetition to challenge authorized knowledge and centralize women-of-colour narratives within a framework of hybridity and ambivalence. https://www.artnet.com/artists/candice-breitz/rainbow-series-10-and-11-DxE9AtEs3w4a5AaFeYrb4A2#:~:text=African%201972