Shani Ketema

Prof. Caçoilo

Art & Women

March 3, 2017

20th Century Women

Due to the fact that women were supposed to live in the shadow of their husbands, there weren't a lot of opportunities for them to present themselves as equal (or maybe even better). With the introduction of suffrage into the lives of women around the United States however,  women began to do more. Women were trading their corsets and marriage certificates for sexy flapper dresses and cigarettes. They were advocating for their rights and most importantly, making art in their own names. After the 19th amendment was passed, giving women voting rights, women were now compelled more than ever to merge into the ‘changing world’.

Modernism, according to the Guerilla Girls, is “impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, abstract expressionism [put together]” (page 59). Prior to the 19th century, most art had some kind of religious affiliation. Then as time went by, and it became more socially acceptable to make art that wasn’t religious people began to make other things. An influential factor was the publication of Sigmund Freud’s The interpretation of Dreams.  As a result of that, artists began to explore the use of symbols and dreams. Modernism challenged the idea that art should be realistic. Consider Abstraction for example. Using vivid colors thickly applied, Abstraction extended impressionism while rejecting its limitations. Its emphasis is on geometric form, distorted form for expressive effect and use unnatural or arbitrary color, like neon green circles. Sonia Delaunay, and her husband Robert Delaunay is credited for this type of art. Although Sonia did not get as much recognition as Robert until he died , they opened up the field of collaborative art. Their work held symbols inside them, like in Robert’s “Homage to Bleriot”. 

Robert Delaunay- Homage to Bleriot

Women wearing beachwear designed by
Sonia Delaunay. (1928)

In addition to canvas art, Sonia merged her art into fashion. "[Sonia] began to make simultaneous dresses, in reaction against the drabness of current fashions. Their patterns of abstract forms were arranged both to enhance the natural movement of the body and to establish a shimmering movement of colors," (Chadwick, 262).

 German expressionism is known as art from starting in 1910 which stemmed from architecture, theatre, and art in Germany. Dadaism was rebellion against middle class complacency where art was sarcastic. Its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Hannah Hoch was the mother of Dadaism. She was the first one to make 'photomontages' or collages using clips from the media. Hoch was opposed by male dadaist until she did a skit during one of their soirees and they let her art into the exhibition. Hannah would place images in her art that featured things the government hated: same sex couples, and non white people. 

Dompteuse, Hannah Hoch

  Surrealism is is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality". It grew out of the Dada movement , which as stated earlier was a rebellion against middle class complacency. According to the art story's website, surrealism was all about displacement of the ordinary so it became unordinary. "The strategy was not to make Surreal objects for the sake of shocking the middle class a la Dada but to make objects "surreal" by what he called dépayesment or estrangement. The goal was the displacement of the object, removing it from its expected context, "defamilarizing" it. Once the object was removed from its normal circumstances, it could be seen without the mask of its cultural context. These incongruous combinations of objects were also thought to reveal the fraught sexual and psychological forces hidden beneath the surface of reality." One Surrealist photographer was Claude Cahun. Claude would defy gender and sexuality restraints through her work. She especially defied the male gaze by showing herself as a person AND an object. "Claude's pictures were a relief from this sometimes monotonous aspect of art history. Instead of presenting herself as a passive object ready to be consumed by a heterosexual male gaze, she defiantly presents herself as both object and subject of her own sexual fascinations." (Guerrilla Girls, 63). Claude would play with her sexuality in her photographs, making it so confounding that some sources have her listed as male. 

Self portrait, 1927

Self Portrait, 1928