Pro Display of Feminist Art

The display and discussion of feminist art within galleries and museums was an instrumental part of bringing the cause for equality to the forefront of the American mind during the Second Wave of Feminism in the 1960s and 70s. Artists like Judy Chicago, who brought crafts out of the home and under the banner of fine art paved the way for both genders to legitimately create in mediums that were traditionally considered inferior to fine art painting and sculpture. She also focused on central core imagery, the opposite of phallic imagery, which is often seen as being violent or martial. Central core imagery instead focuses on the un-ending circle and the wholeness of the figure. Hannah Wilke extended this most famously by creating sculptural images that alluded to or directly represented the vagina. She also created video pieces that inspire artists to this day.

 While some are put off by works that are overtly sexual and even confrontational, to many contemporary artists this is a tool within their arsenal for greater expression of self and politics. Before this was considered old hat or stereotypical of feminist artists, Chicago, Wilke and others had to go out on a limb to create art they believed in, risking their careers and reputations to do so. Feminist art is therefore valid in the context of such a formal setting both as a way to question and inform about societal standards and as pieces of history that show the issues of a particular time, as well as continue to teach those who are newly exposed to it.

~Alicia Miller

Anti Display of Feminist Art 

Feminist Art in the gallery space is like finding a genuine Picasso painting in the middle of the woods; meaning, while interesting and confounding to look at in this location, it has no earthly right being there. 

As many people know, feminist art is founded on dissent and reconfiguration of the art world and going against the standard norms of traditionally accepted art. This movement is based more on protest than on provenance, and is at its strongest when it is done to confound, to outrage, and to protest the status-quo of our male dominated society and the art world. 

Seeing Carolee Sheeman’s interior scroll behind a plexi-glass case at the Neuberger is an atrocity to say the least. Instead of seeing it as it was originally supposed to be seen, which was a powerful piece of performance art, we see the remainder, the scroll itself, as it tries to evoke some sort of artificial awe within the viewer behind plexi-glass. Seeing feminist art neatly hung on white walls in a traditional art museum completely subverts its whole meaning; the power it was once imbued with, becomes nothing more than a picture, or a video, or a scroll, hung up on a wall.

Some would counter that if not the gallery space than where? Surely feminist art has earned the right to stand mightily next to your Pollacks and your De Koonings, right? The answer, quite simply, is no. As Linda Nochlin discussed in her infamous essay “Why are There no Great Women Artists?”, art created by women will only become truly great when there is no longer a gender differentiation present. Until then feminist art should fully embrace its role as a movement based on confrontation and stay away from traditional galleries. 

~ Dana Ellis