Feminist criticism is a political act. It is meant as a challenge to woman’s oppression and “seeks to clarify and undermine the role of social institutions in defining woman”. Feminist art criticism is in line with women’s rights movement (60’s, 70’s, 80’s). Feminist art criticism is the art response to that.
A social institution consists of a group of people who have come together for a common purpose. These institutions are a part of the social order of society and they govern behavior and expectations of individuals.
Social Institutions Include: Communities, towns, cities, villages Common interest groups – gated community, the LGBT, retirement community Service organizations – girl scouts, boy scouts Educational communities, colleges, high schools Ethnic groups Role in families Government and military organizations Political, different parties, local, state etc. |
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The concept of women has gone through a conceptual change, and so have feminist art critics. In the 1980’s, the focus changed from the similarities of woman to the differences between their own woman centered communities. This was in contrast to the 60’s and 70’s which sought to explain, analyze and rectify differences between men and women.
Woman have been and are still being misrepresented in art and positions of power in the art world. Intelligent art critique from women about women artists is severely lacking.
Class consciousness – gathered the thoughts and experiences of women (the oppressed) in contrast to the ruling class (men). This is based on Marxist philosophy of a classless society and a large part of the social revolution that was taking place, especially in the art world. Feminists wanted to raise women from a second-class citizen to that of men.
Woman have been and are still being misrepresented in art and positions of power in the art world. Intelligent art critique from women about women artists is severely lacking.
Class consciousness – gathered the thoughts and experiences of women (the oppressed) in contrast to the ruling class (men). This is based on Marxist philosophy of a classless society and a large part of the social revolution that was taking place, especially in the art world. Feminists wanted to raise women from a second-class citizen to that of men.
Among the most universal and painful forms of oppression is the oppression of women in a male-dominated world. The rebellion of women against this monstrous oppression is of fundamental importance in the struggle for socialist revolution, which cannot be attained without the full participation of women in the fight against capitalism.
His male domination and the subservient position of women in society and the family is now being questioned, along with all the other barbarous institutions that we have inherited from the past. Why should women continue to tolerate the position of second-class citizens?
These marxist ideals mainly fought against the concept of Capitalism, but much of the ideas about oppressing classes applied to the modern feminist thought.
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There are three different ways to achieve equal opportunity for woman in the art world.
They use these three methods to contextualize art to fit with modern feminist interpretations, to bring awareness to feminist issues. The three methods are listed and described below. |
Woman talking about art from women
Activist criticism (Protests)
Emphasized acting out against oppression. More focused on the political content of feminist art
Carol Jacobson in talking about Ordinary. Extrodinary: uses activist feminist art critique to bring context to the inclusion of May Stevenson’s mother (Alice) – bringing a voice to a woman who would normally not be include in a work of art, Stevenson “damns the traps that bar women from the public sphere”.
The piece Voices is framed like a protest march
Woman centered criticism (unique to woman and community of woman)
Focused on the bonds between women communities, both in their similarities and differences of race, creed, sexual identities, socioeconomic back round etc.
Josephine Withers on Ordinary. Extraordinary – focuses on foremothers, and metaphorically all woman and he various relationships between them.
The relationship between her, her adopted ‘ideal mother’ Rosa Luxemburg and her actual birth Mother Alice Stevenson.
The large white area in the painting Fore River can be understood as a metaphor for “the river of life and the birth canal”.
Analytical criticism (woman’s place in society as a whole)
This exposes social and cultural forces that oppress woman, more on the system and social institutions as whole and how it affects women.
Patricia Mathews on Ordinary. Extraordinary – describes the world and woman’s experiences in it. She focuses on a narrative of opposites: climax, resolution – personal, political – marked, and the unmarked – life, death. In Go Wild, Alice both sits with hands in her lap and gestures wildly. The various forms of media, sizes and subjects reflects “the discontinuous narrative content of society’s fragmentation”.
In one piece, pictures of Rosa and Alice as children are juxtaposed with others photos of them at a very old age, reflecting how society has forgotten about them --- “society’s betrayal of woman and the elderly."
The narrative woven through these images can be formed and applied to represent many different lives of woman and how they are viewed in today’s society.
Activist criticism (Protests)
Emphasized acting out against oppression. More focused on the political content of feminist art
Carol Jacobson in talking about Ordinary. Extrodinary: uses activist feminist art critique to bring context to the inclusion of May Stevenson’s mother (Alice) – bringing a voice to a woman who would normally not be include in a work of art, Stevenson “damns the traps that bar women from the public sphere”.
The piece Voices is framed like a protest march
Woman centered criticism (unique to woman and community of woman)
Focused on the bonds between women communities, both in their similarities and differences of race, creed, sexual identities, socioeconomic back round etc.
Josephine Withers on Ordinary. Extraordinary – focuses on foremothers, and metaphorically all woman and he various relationships between them.
The relationship between her, her adopted ‘ideal mother’ Rosa Luxemburg and her actual birth Mother Alice Stevenson.
The large white area in the painting Fore River can be understood as a metaphor for “the river of life and the birth canal”.
Analytical criticism (woman’s place in society as a whole)
This exposes social and cultural forces that oppress woman, more on the system and social institutions as whole and how it affects women.
Patricia Mathews on Ordinary. Extraordinary – describes the world and woman’s experiences in it. She focuses on a narrative of opposites: climax, resolution – personal, political – marked, and the unmarked – life, death. In Go Wild, Alice both sits with hands in her lap and gestures wildly. The various forms of media, sizes and subjects reflects “the discontinuous narrative content of society’s fragmentation”.
In one piece, pictures of Rosa and Alice as children are juxtaposed with others photos of them at a very old age, reflecting how society has forgotten about them --- “society’s betrayal of woman and the elderly."
The narrative woven through these images can be formed and applied to represent many different lives of woman and how they are viewed in today’s society.
Comparative approaches are needed to view and critique past and present art. Activist, woman centered, and analytic critiques are all branches of the feminist movement, giving a voice to the oppressed and disenfranchised woman of the world.
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