I have selected a cross section five women artists who represent
various generations, ethnicities and cultural experiences who bring unique
perspectives and visual languages to the art world and public consciousness. Faith
Ringgold, Betye Saar, Jaune Quick to See Smith, Barbara Chase-Riboud and Wengechi Mutu
are pioneers whose work incorporates traditional and non-traditional materials,
racial themes, and images relevant to their cultural identities, while bridging
these ideas and materials into a modern context. They are connected by their activism and bodies of
work that challenge and expose the “underlying cultural constructions of
gender, race and sexuality.” (Chadwick 393) Their art protested against the patriarchal
constructions of our social institutions and the often degrading images of women
and their people in the mainstream media and throughout history. Their activism, manifested through art, has transformed
the political and social consciousness of their generation and many to follow.
Faith Ringgold began her career in the 1960s as a painter
and is best known for her African American story quilt revival in the late 1970's.
She created bold and provoking paintings in direct response to the Civil
Rights and feminist movements. Among her many achievements, Ringgold also organized the Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WASABAL). In 1969 Ringgold and WASABAL lead a successful campaign against an exhibition at the School of Visual Arts in New York protesting the lack of female artists of color in an exhibit that specifically criticized US policies on race and sexism. Protests and mobilization for women artists and artists of color continued throughout the 1970's. These efforts combined with committed women artists producing work that reflected women's social and political views, influenced the public's consciousness and museum officials. This movement lead to the increased inclusion of women artists being exhibited at the Whitney Museum and significantly influenced artistic practice in America. Betye Saar and Barbara Chase-Riboud were among the first contemporary women of color exhibited in the Whitney Museum during this time, proving that the their voices were being heard and affecting change.
Ringgold’s art combines painting and quilted fabric to
create storytelling. Ringgold’s unprecedented exploration of race and gender in
America is examined throughout her body of works. In 1963, Ringgold began work on a series of
paintings entitled American People ,
in it her subjects were of mixed gender and race positioned closely
together. The subjects reflected the
interracial tension that Ringgold directly felt during a time in America
defined by the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In the late sixties another series entitled
Black Light featured canvases with mask-like faces that demonstrated her
connection to African art and design.
Many other works, included two pieces from her story quilt series refer to the racially tumultuous events of the 1960’s .Tar Beach and Coming to Jones Road #4: Under a Blood Red Sky are among these series of works and were also books that chronicles the migration of slaves.
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| Coming to Jones Road #4 Under a Blood Red Sky 1999 |
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| Tar Beach 1988 |
Betye Saar was best known for her work in the field of assemblage which is are multidimensional mediums largely comprised of found objects. Her assemblages feature stereotyped African American figures from folk culture and advertising and memorabilia, as well as, ritual and tribal objects.
In 1972 Saar's career launched when a series of controversial pieces entitled the "The Liberation of Aunt Jemima", aimed at reclaiming the derogatory images of African Americans was exhibited in 1972. The piece featured a wooden box displaying the full-figured iconic smiling black mammy used to sell a popular maple syrup, only instead of pancakes she was holding a broom in one hand and a rifle in the other. Saar was revolting against this mainstream image and the way African-American women were treated as objects. In an interview for netropolitan.org, Saar explains the connections between her mediums and her work by saying that she is the kind of person who recycles materials as well as emotions. She goes on to discuss the anger she felt about racism and segregation in America and from that anger this series evolved. Saar's chilling and poignant piece entitled Crossing depicts a photo of an African American soldier fro World War I , mounted on a tombstone and across the bottom is a diagram of a slave ship.
In 1972 Saar's career launched when a series of controversial pieces entitled the "The Liberation of Aunt Jemima", aimed at reclaiming the derogatory images of African Americans was exhibited in 1972. The piece featured a wooden box displaying the full-figured iconic smiling black mammy used to sell a popular maple syrup, only instead of pancakes she was holding a broom in one hand and a rifle in the other. Saar was revolting against this mainstream image and the way African-American women were treated as objects. In an interview for netropolitan.org, Saar explains the connections between her mediums and her work by saying that she is the kind of person who recycles materials as well as emotions. She goes on to discuss the anger she felt about racism and segregation in America and from that anger this series evolved. Saar's chilling and poignant piece entitled Crossing depicts a photo of an African American soldier fro World War I , mounted on a tombstone and across the bottom is a diagram of a slave ship.
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| Crossings 2006 |
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| The Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972 |
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is an example of a contemporary Native American female artist that has lead the way through her art, for other Native American women to transcend gender and cultural barriers She is a of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Quick-to-See is a political activist and prolific artist whose work embodies both modern and traditional influences that also functions as political criticisms of the alienation from Western culture. Smith is also the author of "Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, And Sage", a women’s quarterly magazine that showcases women, art and Native American life.
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Ghost Dance Dress 2000
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Quick-to-See work challenges mainstream American culture and the exploitation of Native American peoples. The piece Ghost Dress was exhibited in the contemporary art collection at the Brooklyn Museum in 2006. The Plains woman’s dress featured in the painting is worn by those in the Ghost Dance Religion. The religion was apart of larger movement that offered hope to many homeless, ill, and hungry Native Americans. According to Smith the messages and tensions are conveyed through elements in this work. The eagle represents the prophesy of the Ghost Dance religion while the bingo cards represent the Catholic Church’s introduction of gambling to reservations.
Trade Gifts
In her painting, “Trade Canoe (Gifts for Trading Land with White People),” Quick-to-See features Asian-made tokens such as tomahawks, sports caps, beaded belts, and feather headdresses hanging on a chain above the Flathead Salish canoe. This piece is a protest against using American Indian tribes as mascots for sports which are presented on the sports caps in the piece and the invasion of her reservation by white people less than one hundred years ago.
Her paintings incorporate glyphs with collage using iconic symbols such as U.S. Flags and maps as well as traditional Native American imagery of canoes, horses, and tribally significant items. Her narrative conveys powerful political messages. The themes and issues consistently addressed in her work reflect a reverence for nature, animals, and humankind. Additionally, Quick-to-See refuses to use art materials that pollute the environment and strives to find new methods of non-toxic printmaking.
Another artist activist that will be showcased in an upcoming exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum is Barbara Chase-Riboud. The exhibition entitled Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties surveys 100 artists who impacted the Civil Rights movement, among them are Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Riboud.
Riboud's first solo piece was exhibited in 1969 in the Whitney Museum. The sculptural piece was apart of a series entitled the Malcolm X Steles which was dedicated the to the memory of Malcolm X. Chase-Riboud developed the first four sculptures in this series in 1969 and drew her inspiration from the civil rights movement. Chase-Riboud is also known for her writing and poetry, most notably the historical novel Sally Hemings. Chase-Riboud's exhibited works feature abstract sculptures that are cast from folded sheets of wax, combining bronze, manipulated into folds with knotted and braided silk and wool fiber. Barbara Chase-Riboud has pursued a long and successful artistic career. The dramatic contrast in textures has been interpreted to suggest the possibility of racial and cultural integration.
In an interview with Newsworks, a Philadelphia news program, Chase-Riboud explains that "these steles are a memorial to a transformation that took place in Malcolm from a convict to a world leader and "like the steles that were dedicated to King Tut, Julius Cesar".
 Malcolm X #3 |
The final artist presented in this post is Wengechi Mutu. Mutu is currently on exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Her
collection, entitled Wengechi Mutu: A
Fantastic Journey is the first US survey of this internationally renowned
artists work. Mutu’s work spans from the
mid-1990s to the present. Mutu’s
exhibition displays fifty pieces, including a video piece entitled The End of Eating Everything. Her work combines but is not limited to, found objects, collage, sculpture
and paintings. The materials used are diverse
and largely inspired from African traditions. Mutu’s work, like Juane Smith, explores
and criticizes issues surrounding race, colonialism, and modern global consumption's negative impact on the environment. She
is best known for her collages and installations depicting mythical female
forms and landscapes. These figures are designed
to encourage and provoke socio-political exploration and transformation. Within the collection on exhibit is a video
installation in collaboration with pop artist Santigold. A poignant and disturbing look at how our destructive
our consumption is to the planet.
Still from The End of Eating Everything 2013
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th. New
York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.
"Exhibitions: Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey."
Brooklyn Museum: Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey. The Brooklyn Museum, n.d.
Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/105682.html
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