Evolution of the Female in Feminist Art

The Evolution of the Female in Feminist Art “The goal of feminism was to change the nature of art itself, to transform culture in sweeping and permanent ways by introducing into it the heretofore suppressed perspective of women” (Broude & Gerrard 11). From the beginnings of human civilization, art has maintained its role as both a form of expression and a means of recording life and history. Running parallel to this continuity of purpose, however, is the chaotic and fluctuating stream of stylistic changes and the schools of thought that bore them. From the designs on ancient pottery to the flat images of Byzantine portraiture and from the realistic fantasies of Surrealism to the purposeful jumbling of the Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s, one aspect of the world of art has remained intact throughout: a complete disregard for female artists. Numerous comprehensive tomes, with promising titles such as “The History of Art,” “Art in the Western World,” and “The Story of Art” were written without the mention of a single female artist. One author, Janson, defended his omission by saying that he “ha[s] not been able to find a woman artist who clearly belongs in a one-volume history of art” (Broud & Gerrard, 16). Despite a history of being patronizingly corralled into small female art groups primarily meant for shallow amusement and generally without the particular avant garde training of the day, Janson’s claim still strikes a false note; surely some female’s artistic vision must not have been quelled by the limitations placed on her just as some female writer’s of the same periods were occasionally able to break through in their field. Unfortunately, it was not until the 1970s that the Feminist Art Movement gained solid ground. The Surrealism of the 1930s and the Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s were both highly concerned with the superiority of men and a representation of that superiority. For example, Lee Krasner, the wife of Jackson Pollock, one of the famous...