Post Four

Emily Zuniga
Art and Women
Female Artists

In today's society, giving female artists the deserved recognition that they have been fighting for since the dawn of humanity is becoming more popular nowadays. "Hipster" is a common term that the millennial generation has become hypnotized too, creating a more visible lens for underground artists that encompasses music, art, theater, fashion, film, and even food. The term underground has become more popular as mainstream culture has become monotone and deviating from the norm is seen as the cool thing amongst the younger population. Yet, underground and difference was not always rewarded, especially for women who sought change, specifically in the art world. As a male dominated arena, females were considered second-hand artists and not given as mush attention. Female artists became a growing community that banded together to bring change into the art world and definitely deviated from "normal" art. From paintings to videos, feminist artist grabbed the public attention with their unapologetic, in your face, bold pieces that have become prominent and meaningful. The following artists prove their willingness to take risks and innovatively with confidence and heroism. 

Marilyn Minter 

Marilyn is an American artist born in Louisiana in1948 and currently works in New York City. Minter’s sultry paintings, photographs, and videos vividly explore complex and contradictory emotions around beauty and the feminine body in American culture. She gives viewers her interpretation of the power of desire, evident in the fashion industry’s commercialization of sex and the body. Women have always been used to grab attention in the media and Minter's lens of her critique stirs deep emotions from her erotic imagery. She has a current exhibition called Pretty/Dirty in the Brooklyn Museum in which the revolting images cannot stop the viewer from looking pushes them to continue viewing her alluring artwork. It has become seductive and full of color and sparkle, making it a highly sought out collection by many viewers. Minter uses the fashion industry to evoke a message to the consumers. While she has directed ad campaigns for many beauty brands, she defends herself by saying:

“I’m trying to make you feel all these things when you look — the pleasure of looking but also the shame, because you want to look even though the images make you hate yourself.” 

Marilyn Minter, Vapor, 2016

Marilyn Minter, White Cotton Panties, 1992

Minter focuses on the female body to desexualize them and allow the women in the painting to explore and be free within their own bodies.

Marilyn Minter, Black Orchid, 2012

Betty Tompkins

Betty Tompkins (born 1945) is an American artist. Tompkins is a painter whose works revolve, almost exclusively, around photorealistic, close-up imagery of both heterosexual and homosexual intimate acts.The large scale photorealistic paintings of heterosexual intercourse which Betty Tompkins made between 1969 and 1974 were practically unknown when they were exhibited together for the first time in New York in 2002. Titled Fuck Paintings, her daring and bold artwork was labeled pornographic, given a bad connotation and denied entry into many places, such as Paris where her work was headed to an exhibition. It took years of Tompkins to regain ownership of her work from French customs. 

Betty Tompkins, Sex Grid # 10, 2009

Betty Tompkins, Sex Painting #1, 2009

"Although I am, as a rule, against all categorization, I feel that feminism is under such constant threat in art and in life that I am proud to call myself one and to be included in the Feminist Art Base." - Tompkins

 Tompkins is a groundbreaking, feminist artist who has repeatedly bucked conventional norms, making it a point to avoid ‘safe’ art in favor of creating difficult and impactful paintings, drawings, photographs, and videos. Taking as her starting point heterosexual pornography, Tompkins reclaims the medium, taking a genre typically conceived as a vehicle for demoralize women, and uses it to create direct, powerful, and empowering works that are distinctly feminist. Appropriating pornographic imagery, Tompkins recasts it through an artistic lens and creates masterfully crafted paintings that assume control of and reframe the subject matter. Her drawings are super realistic making the artwork come alive as if they were will still shots from porn videos. The viewer is left to look at the erotic drawings and recognize the daring risk Tompkins took in making the drawings. #NSFW: Fuck Paintings: click on the link to explore her more explicit work.

Judy Chicago

Born on July 20 - Chicago, IL, Judy Chicago's title expands beyond that of an artist. In the early seventies after a decade of professional art practice, Chicago pioneered Feminist art and art education through a unique program for women at California State University, Fresno, an approach that she has continued to develop over the years. In 1974, Chicago turned her attention to the subject of women’s history to create her most well-known work, The Dinner Party, which was carried out between 1974 and 1979 with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. This significant multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization and feminism, has been seen by more than one million viewers during its sixteen exhibitions held at venues spanning six countries. The piece is captivating and mesmerizing at how grand and detailed the whole project turned out. Chicago did not fail the attributed women in her piece. 

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-1979, Brooklyn Museum

The Dinner Party has been the subject of countless articles and art history texts and is included in innumerable publications in diverse fields.

Visiting the exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and walking into the area where The Dinner Party is located made me feel as if I was transported into Judy Chicago's world and how meaningful her piece is. Experiencing it alone in silence induces reflection to the history important women made on society. Each plate gave each place setting its own personality and story. Chicago transports you into her vision of how far women have come in today society's given the long term effects of patriarchy in society. It is a political symbol of feminism and a celebration of female craft as well. 

Judy Chicago, Red Flag, 1971

Chicago purposely focused on showcasing this commonplace in women's lives - dealing with a period. Yet, it became very controversial since it was a very personal topic that many (men) ignore. Menstruation is considered repulsive and appalling by mainstream society. Culture teaches women to be ashamed of periods. Given a dirty connotation, women hide their experiences with menstruation, prompting Judy Chicago to force viewers to acknowledge it.

Jenny Saville 

Jenny Saville, Shift, 1996-1997

Jenny Saville, Closed Contact, 1995-1996

Jenny Saville is a UK artist who deconstructs the stereotypes of beauty and eroticism of the female body as seen through through men, especially through the Male Gaze. She focuses on obese women and changes in the body, but ironically, she uses her own body as a model and means of reflection. Through her work she reveals the natural beauty of the individuality of the women she paints, including her own. Different stages of emotion such as sadness, anguish, and anger are expressed through the body. Saville uses huge canvases to paint bodies, which often cannot contain the whole figure in relation to how we sometimes cannot control our own bodies. 

Jenny Saville, Propped, 1992

Amanda Charchian

"The specific idea of what happens when a woman photographs another woman intimately, and the biologically confounded process our pheromones go through during that time."

Los Angeles based photographer Amanda Charchian fuses sensuality and creativity to capture naked women together. While traveling to many countries with fellow artists, she found a deep connection to photographing nude women interacting with each other in a nonsexual way, which later became titled "Pheromone Hotbox." It taught her to unleash her creativity and did not conform to an art process to produce her work. She followed her intuition empowering the women she captured, instead of exploiting them like other many male artists have done in the past. 

Amanda Charchian, "Pheromone Hotbox"

Amanda Charchian, "Antelope Canyon"

Amanda Charchian, "Ginger Entanglement"

Bibliography

• http://www.marilynminter.net
• https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/books/review/marilyn-minter-pretty-dirty.html
• http://www.bettytompkins.com/default.aspx
• https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/betty-tompkins
• http://www.gavlakgallery.com/exhibitions/betty-tompkins-sex-works-women-words-phrases-and-stories
• http://www.judychicago.com/about/biography/
• http://www.gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville
• http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/saville1.html
• http://amandacharchian.com/portfolio/uncategorized/pheromone-hotbox-2
• http://amandacharchian.com/photography