Post 4

I explore five contemporary, postmodern women artists who have been at the forefront of significant social issues, and who’s work reflects their core beliefs and their ability to use art to shed light to vital questions society overlooks.  Kara walker, Barbra Kruger, Judy Chicago, Zoe Strauss, and Andrea Bowers have greatly impacted the art world through their work as artists and social activists and have increased attention on issues of racism, sexism, poverty, rape, and humanism as a whole.

Kara Walker is an American artist born in Stockton, California, at a very young age, she was influenced by her father who worked as a painter, and a professor. Just like her father,  Walker also took up teaching, she taught at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and Columbia University. Walker introduces social issues in her working concerning race, after moving from California to South at a young age she suffered racial abuse. Walker’s is widely known for her ‘panoramic friezes of cut-paper silhouettes’, her work addresses America’s original sin, slavery, and social and economic inequalities. One of her first instillations called, Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994), was very socko in catching the eye and attention major gallery’s and admirers. She continued her work and became increasingly successful and won the MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award.

(Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994))

The imagery of Gone is very jarring but it seeks to disprove the promise of romance and instead shows the racial inequality and stereotypes that as a society we subscribe to.  Her critiques claim that her works only further reinforces stereotypes based on her Jim crow era cartoonish silhouettes and ill-suited actions of the characters in her work.

Barbara Kruger is an American Artist born in Newark New Jersey her works comprises of black, white, and red photographs. Kruger uses pronouns in her work to address the construction of power in a male dominated society. Kruger was born to a middle-class family, and she attended one year at Syracuse University until leaving a year later after her father’s sudden death. Soon after she went to Parsons school of design in New York.  Barbra’s work covered a wide variety of social issues, but in particular a focus in her work was feminism, and the LGBT community. In 1977 during her early period of her work created a sculpture that depicted J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn, that were right wing figures in drag and kissing each other. Much like Walker Kruger also took up teaching after she became dissatisfied with her work she moved to Berkeley, California and took up teaching at the University of California. Her style is very unique as it consists of Black and white photographs with red. Her text and imagery contain powerful scenes which exposes sexism/misogyny/ and bigotry. Her work is direct and it seeks to evoke a powerful response from viewer, and her style also includes collage which is the cropping of magazine and newspapers images and arbitrary or purposely putting them together

(You are not Yourself, 1981)

Kruger’s piece ‘You are not yourself’ c 1981 shows a woman observing herself in mirror that’s been broken, some viewers interpret it as women’s role in society and how its fractured.

Judy Chicago was born in the summer of 1939, in Chicago Illinois.  Her first name was Judith Sylvia Cohen but she had it changed to Chicago in order to match her personality and her strong mid-west accent. Her artistic work touched on feminist issues, she was the first person to coin the word feminist art, and she also created the first feminist art program in the United States. Much of her beliefs in support of women rights can be traced to her father who had strong liberal views towards women rights. Her work promoted and made aware many of many issues women in society were and are still dealing with, all the while battling against a male dominated art world.

The Dinner Party, 1979

The dinner party is an art work Judy Chicago created to celebrate women and their achievements through history, like many of her work before using female and male organs to create a vivid artwork, The Dinner Party comes with a huge twist. It’s a dynamic triangular shaped table, coupled with silverware with ‘vaginal imagery’ that represents historical women figures throughout history.

Zoe Strauss is an American artist and photographer, Strauss was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, her father died when she was at a very young age, and she was the first person in her family to graduate from High school.   She has published many books and displayed countless photographs that deal with class and economic issues within American society. Her early work focuses on marginalized spaces and her subjects the economically disempowered people of Philadelphia.

Zoe Strauss; Ten Years, 2001-2010

One of Strauss’s photographic work that focuses on working classes spaces in South Philadelphia.

Andrea Bowers is an American artist born in 1965, her works include media, drawing and instillations. Bowers is also a social activist and her political activism includes a variety of issues such as immigration, environment, the labor movement, and feminism, her artistic work is a reflection of it. One of her prominent works is an installation of a sexual assault case that took place in Steubenville Ohio. She creates a 70-foot drawing of the text messages sent between the two suspected culprits, and also the victim and bystander after the aftermath. Her work, hard evidence in the case shows the indifference of the actions of the alleged and also shows the pity reflected on them by some media outlets. Her work is jarring for it takes the viewer on real time events as they occur. To create her artwork, she sat in court during the proceeding and wrote down the statements.

Andrea Bowers: #sweetjane, 2014

Sweet Jane is the art piece, where Jane Doe is the victim, talking to the person who was there during her attack which lasted throughout an entire night as she was unconscious.

Works cited:

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-walker-kara.htmhttp://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.htmlhttp://www.artpractical.com/column/bad-at-sports-interview-with-andrea-bowers/http://www.theartstory.org/artist-chicago-judy.htmhttp://philamuseum.org/exhibitions/745.html