Amazing Female Artist

Kiera Fils-Aime
Art & Women
18 April 2017

Amazing Female Artist 

     Honestly, before taking this course, I was not familiar with any female artist. If someone asked me to list a couple of artist I was familiar with, I would most likely say : Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, or Leonardo Da Vinci. Thanks to this Art & Women course, I have been exposed to many brilliant female artist and their amazing artwork that does not get as much credit it deserves.  Throughout my studies, these amazing artist stuck out to me: Yayoi Kusama, Jenny Saville, Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, and Yoko Ono. As a result of female artist a path for today’s women artist, given the fact that females were not given the freedom to paint how and when they wanted to, female painters today are inspired by their work and often imitate their styles.

     Yayoi Kusama is not only Japanese artist, but also one of the world’s most influential people. Following World War II, Kusama attended art in school in Kyoto, a city in Tokyo where she learned Nihonga. Nihonga are paintings that reflect traditional Japanese culture and techniques. Alongside, Kusama studies abraction. According to Chadwick, abstraction is described as, “inextricably bound up with the formal developments of Post-Impressionism and Cubism, and with a desire to break with nature and infuse the resulting art with a profound spiritual content. . . .” ( Chadwick 252). When she first began experimenting with abstraction, she depicted multi reflective themes through using mirrors. A Perfect example of this theme can be seen in her painting Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965.

Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965

     Jenny Saville presents her talents through the use of creative aesthetics of human bodies. Most of her artwork consists of Impressionism which Guerrilla Girls consider to be, “ A 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles” (Guerrilla Girls 60) and oil paintings. Although work seems to replicate sculptures and also give off any abstract vibe also. In the painting provided called Jenny Saville, The Mothers, 2011, oil on canvas, a women and children are depicted.

The Mothers 2011

     Barbara Kruger is a local pop artist from Newark, New Jersey and later went to Syracuse University and Parsons School of Design. She famous for her work which consists of black and white pictures and slogans written over them. Majority of Kruger’s work is inspired by feminism in which she uses it to criticize sexism/misogyny and cultural power structures. Most of the photographs she uses are existed photos from other sources that typically involve a struggle for power. Her previous career as a graphic designer has a major influence on her unique style. Kruger’s work is very public and easily found because it is posted everywhere from billboards, buses, and posters. One of her most common pieces are I Shop, Therefore I am (1987) which questions the reason behind shopping rituals.

I Shop, Therefore I am (1987)

       Judy Chicago was one of the first female feminist artist in the 1970s. She participated in a movement that focused on women's lives and their roles as artists. Their main goals were to change the way contemporary art misperceived by society. Judy Chicago is well known for her outstanding piece called Dinner Party. It is a set up in the shape of an equilateral triangle with Dinner tables. Each table consist of plates and utensils. What is unique about this piece is that each plate consists of of a design that looks like female genitals and recognizes many important women and can be seen at the Brooklyn Museum. Along with the women being recognized is one of my favorite women, Georgia O'Keeffe, “Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, known internationally for her boldly innovative art. Her distinct flowers, dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are iconic and original contributions to American Modernism.” (Georgia O'Keeffe Museum)”.

Dinner Party 1974-1979

     Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist from New York. Between her films, performance, music, Ono is a remarkable artist. Being that she is a feminist, Ono’s art pushes her viewers to look deep within and think verses simply viewing the superficial layer of things.  In Ono’s performance known as Cut Piece, she depicts feminism by sitting down on the stage very still and silently as members from the audience took her clothes off piece by piece. The underlying meaning behind this presentation was that Ono was a piece of art, and the audience that was cutting up her clothes were creating art work.

Cut Piece 1965

Works Cited 

"About Georgia O'Keeffe - The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum." Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

The Guerrilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (New York, Penguin Books, 1998)

Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society, 4th edition, (New York: Thames and Hudson), 2007.

"Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors | Hirshhorn Museum | Smithsonian." Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Smithsonian. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.