| Transcript |
Dinner guests, left to right: S0ME LIVING AMERICAN WOMEN ARTISTS, by Mary Beth Edelson
Lynda Benglis, Helen Frankenthaler, June Wayne, AlmaThomas, Lee Krasner, Nancy Graves, Georgia O'Keeffe, Elaine DeKooning, Louise Nevelson, M.C. Richards, Louise Bougeois, Lila Katzen, Yoko Ono
The Joy Of Recognition
by Anita Freeman Davidson
WOMEN ARTISTS, Recognition and Reappraisal Front the Early Middle Ages to
the Twentieth Century
Karen Petersen & J. J. Wilson
Harper & Row (1976)
212 pages, $5.95
Karen Petersen and J. J. Wilson do not
consider themselves art historians; they
are academically trained in comparative
literature. WOMEN ARTISTS had its beginnings in a women's literature class at
California State College, Sonoma, in the
summer of 1971 when Petersen and Wilson
were doing research on unknown (or ignored) women writers and philosophers.
Petersen chose as a parallel project to research unknown women artists; Wilson
became interested because the collection
of over 1300 slides provided for humanities
teachers contained only eight works by
women. She hoped the college would
photograph works turned up by Petersen's
research.
The search for color plates of women's
works was painfully slow. Research
methods varied from the "dogged perusal
of indexes of artists' names," to the discovery that if they looked up the family
names of well-known male artists-Diego
Rivera, Jean Honore Fragonard, Marcel
Duchamp, for example-they often found
some account of a wife/lover/sister/
mother/daughter who was also an artist.
As the slide collection grew, it was
shown to classes and community groups.
The response was good. 'The particular
combination of women's biography and
art seemed to reach a wide variety of people on a deep level." Translating the slide
show into print was a natural next step.
"We all know there is another story to
be told," Adrienne Rich reminds us.
WOMEN A R TISTS is intended as an overview of the "other" story of art, concentrating on what Judy Chicago calls "a
new kind of art history, one that searched
out women's work for women's point of
view." The quantity of reproductions is a
feast. Never before have so many been
gathered in one place from such a wide
time spectrum. An effort was made to
choose works that were not included in
the Harris and Nochlin exhibition catalogue, Women Artists 1550-1950, so that
as many different works as possible would
be made visible. Unfortunately, there are
no color plates; however, 35mm slide sets
are available from the publisher. The text
focuses largely on the lives of the artists
and the political climate in which they
lived and worked.
The works of women need exposure;
they need sharing with their largest possible audience to develop a special vocabulary of appreciation and the same joy of
recognition that men _ art has received
over the centuries. It is not conducive to
creativity to he denied an audience. Tillie
Olsen, in her essay Silences, warns us of
the terrible toll that being ignored can
take. People are not just silent; they are
silenced.
The silence of the past is broken, and
the myth of the historical anonymity of
women is laid to rest by the reproductions
of manuscript pages by nuns of the early
Middle Ages. Guda not only signed her
name to a homeliary that she illuminated,
but included a self-portrait as well;Claricia
signed her manuscript and drew a playful
portrait of herself exercising on the initial
"Q"; and Maria Ormani included with her
signature a self-portrait and an inscription
revealing the pride she took in her work.
Women of the late Middle Ages were
subject to an all-pervasive discrimination
that incorporated such rules as those of
the 14th-century guild on tapestry making
which forbade pregnant or menstruating
women from working on the big tapestry
looms. Such prohibitions are part of a
pattern that repeats itself wherever an
industry is begun by women: Women
work in or close by their homes, producing on a small scale, perfecting technique and developing their product to a
high level of attractiveness and proven
marketability, only to have male workers
gradually replace them while so-called
protective laws exclude them from all but
the most menial aspects of the production.
Nor did the Age of Enlightenment improve the position of women. Ironically,
most women lost ground; the humanistic
ideals and individual freedom of the
Renaissance did not apply to women.
Women slaves, witch-burnings, an increase
in prostitution and the practice of looting
convents and ousting the nuns left women
no options. Without the protection of her
family and/or an early marriage, a woman
could find no respectable place in Renaissance society. Women artists who survived
in this period were invariably either the
daughter or the wife of a male artist. One
notable exception was Sofonisba Anguis-
sola who had the good fortune to be born
one of the six daughters of Amilcare
Anguissola, a widower who applied to all
his children the humanist ideals of the
Renaissance. He provided a full range of
educational opportunities for all his children. Three of Sofonisba's sisters died
young, but Anna and Elena were both
working artists, though little of their
work survives. Sofonisba's recognition began when Michelangelo praised and encouraged her in her work. She was invited
to the court of Phillip II of Spain where
she remained for twenty years. Her achievements cover a wide range, and scholars
are currently reattributing many works to
her.
Another myth dispelled by WOMEN
ARTISTS is that of the woman artist as
dilettante. These were serious artists who
supported themselves with their works,
and many were the sole support of their
families. In Bologna, that oasis of oppor-
"These were serious artists who supported
themselves with their works."
tunity and education for women, Lavinia
Fontana was appointed one of the official
painters of the Papal court. In 17th-century
England, Mary Beale earned her family's
livelihood with her much sought-after portraits-she painted 83 in the year 1677. Her
husband kept records of her commissions,
ordered supplies for her studio and attended to domestic details.
The Eighteenth Century introduced
institutionalization. Academies were
founded and membership became essential
to obtaining commissions. The number of
members was strictly limited; if women
were accepted at all, only a token number
were allowed. Many women did rise to
prominence, however, and an important
advance was made when women artists
were asked to teach young women art
students. Major teaching studios were
operated by both Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
and Adelaide Labille-Guiard in prerevolu-
tionary France.
With the turn of the century, more
and more women were gaining entrance
to schools and "pressure was building to
provided them with something other than
a cow to model." Access to schools and
live models would be only a partial victory; the struggle for more women instructors would continue to the present day.
In France, women found a more agreeable climate for both work and study. The
independent Mary Cassatt left a legacy of
bold, experimental work, and also "furthered, in fact almost created, an interest
in French impressionism...."
Berthe Morisot succeeded in "saying in
oil what can only be said in watercolour. "
And Suzanne Valadon, abandoned as a
child, taught herself to paint and achieved
an affluence which she celebrated in "conspicuous consumption, such as feeding
her cherished cats caviar every Friday."
The body of work that she produced is
remarkably innovative and leads directly
into the artistic adventures of the 20th
century.'
The turn-of-the-century mysteries—
Gwen John, Romaine Brooks, Florine
Stettheimer and Seraphrine de Senlis, are
HOUSTON BREAKTHROUGH
SEPTEMBER |
