Jaiheer Rogers

Art and Woman History

Post 4

Due Date 4/18/17

5 True Women Artist in Art History

          Throughout the centuries, women have been involved in making art, whether as creators and innovators of new forms of artistic expression, patrons, collectors, sources of inspiration, or significant contributors as art historians and critics. Women have been and continue to be integral to the institution of art and have found opposition in the traditional narrative of art history. They have faced challenges due to gender biases, from finding difficulty in training to selling their work and gaining recognition. Barriers of entry seem to be the major setback consisting of race, gender, and social class.Despite all the obstacles women still managed to be resilient against the odds to construct outstanding works. All work being influence from social issues and movements in the country. The contemporary artist I will focus on will be Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, Barbara Kruger, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith.   

           One contemporary artist who made a big impact in art history was Cindy Sherman. She was born January 19, 1954 and is  an American photographer and film directer known for her portraits(p.1). She was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995(p.1). Later she began her painting career at Buffalo State College.This is were she grew a passion to do photographing herself in different clothing. She create her shoots alone in a studio and play all the roles to make a productive photo shoot (p.2). Sherman uses herself to portray a variety of issues of the modern world role of the woman and the role of the artist.  Sherman has developed a distinct signature style.  Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the "role and representation of women in society", the media and the nature of the creation of art (p.2)

Kara Walker was born November 26, 1969. She is an African American contemporary painter print-maker, film- maker, silhouettist, and text artist.She focuses on race, sexuality, violence , gender, and identity in her works of art. She was taught in Columbia University(p.1). She is best known for panoramic friezes which conveyed a message about a history of slavery and racism through violent and imagery. She relate the stereotypical norms into modern day concerns. Her work shows who was in power and who was the victim by making the blacks with distinct features to depict inequalities and mistreatment by whites(p.3).

Barbara Kruger was born January 26, 1945 and is an American visual artist, and collagist. Her work commonly have a black and white colors with simple wording.  The art work address identity, sexuality, and cultural constraints for power(p.1). She was known for grouping feminist for issue on language and sign. She used assertive text to challenge the audience and conveyed her ideas with a computer(p.3). Barbara Kruger had a poster for 1989 "Women March on Washington" to support legal abortion (p.2). In 2016 she has created a work to protest Donald Trump which was featured on the cover of New York Magazine. 

Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson was an African American photographer who emphasis African American women issue based of stereotypes of race and gender. Her signature and most prestigious works was photo-text. This involves including a brief passages of text superimposed on her photographs(p.2). This started a new movement in art and women history. She was a pioneer of new levels of meanings to images.Most of her work was to defeat the barriers of entry and to explore the perception of African American women in the culture(p.1). In 2007 her work was featured in a 20-year retrospective at Whitney Museum of Art(p.2).
Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith was born in 1954 and is a German-born sculptor known for her works that deal with "bodily themes, abjection, and sexuality"(p.1). She mastered her craft quickly and was able to travel upward mobility in the industry right away. She comes from a upper class type of family. From 1982, she has exhibited annually at the "Fawbush Gallery in New York"(p.1).Her work received significant attention in 1990 during her exhibition for the Projects Room at the Museum of Modern Art(p.2)


Works Citied 
http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walker

guerrilla girls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki_Smith

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/lorna-simpson-12577