Women Making Art

Illustrations

Preface

DEBORAH J. JOHNSON AND WENDY OLIVER

This book began out of friendship, discussion of common interests, and as an extension of a team-taught course, Women in the Arts since 1960, which we developed together in the early 1990s. As colleagues in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, and specialists in the areas of art and dance, we developed a curriculum that integrated many different arts in the spirit of interdisciplinary learning. Specifically, we looked intensively at the work of modern and contemporary (mostly American) women artists in thirteen different fields: performance art, modern dance, poetry, installation art, photography, architecture, fiction, film, theater, contemporary ballet, contemporary classical music, Broadway musicals, and popular culture.

The course offered our students and us the opportunity to discover a myriad of new interconnections among the arts, feminist thought, and cultural history. The synergistic effect of these elements was compelling for us, and when we realized that there was no existing text that had the same effect, we decided to create this book. Mirroring the organization of the course, we invited scholars from the varied arts disciplines to write chapters focused primarily upon a single work or collection by a well-known female artist. This, we felt, would allow for a thoughtful and sophisticated engagement with each work, rather than taking a survey approach, where depth is necessarily sacrificed to breadth.

The first edition of the book was published in 2001, and we have been using it in our course ever since then. When an editor at Peter Lang suggested a second edition, we were happy to revise and update the book, adding new chapters to bring the book into the 21st century. The primary goals of both the course and the book, first and second editions, are to introduce readers to several important female artists; to develop an understanding of recent multidisciplinary arts history and criticism; and to assess the relationship among the arts within the period since 1960.

Our choice of artists was made through research and conversations with scholars in each of the relevant fields. Because we were including only one artist per field, one might suppose that the choices would be difficult to make. However, we were not concerned with selecting the one best female poet (or composer or choreographer) since 1960, but instead, someone whose impact was unique, lasting, and significant. We also wanted to include women of varied races, religions, and perspectives. Although primarily from the United States, the group includes Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion, and Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born architect based in London until her death in 2016. Because of our initial goal of creating a textbook for students in the U.S., the content was weighted toward providing our readers with a knowledge of the movers and shakers within their own modern and contemporary American culture. However, our current global society continues to reveal that national identity is much less meaningful than it was in the past. All of the artists in our book are known throughout the Western—and increasingly frequently, non-Western—world for their artistic achievements. Perhaps a third edition of the book will one day make the categories ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ equally redundant. A final criterion for inclusion was that the work of the artist be readily available in some format so that readers could experience it directly, since essays cannot substitute for personal engagement with an artwork.

The ultimate choice of work or works presented for each artist was decided, in most cases, by the editors in collaboration with individual authors. Many of the works selected have won prizes or honors in their fields and are thus well known not only within their respective arts communities, but beyond. The chapters are arranged in chronological order spread over six decades beginning with Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece in 1964 to Diane Paulus’ 2016 production of Waitress on Broadway.

Chapter 1 examines Ono’s work as a performance artist over a period of several decades, but focusing primarily on Cut Piece (1964). In an act with wide implications, this work invited audience members to cut off pieces of Ono’s clothing as she sat quietly, without reacting. Author Deborah Johnson traces the priority of feminist ideation in this work, and to a lesser extent, throughout Ono’s performance work, in general.

In Chapter 2 on choreographer Yvonne Rainer and Trio A (1966), Wendy Oliver discusses how minimalism, postmodern dance, and feminism share common ground as seen in this 4 & 1/2 minute dance. It problematizes the dancing body and examines Rainer’s solution to avoiding or averting “the male gaze.”

Next, Deborah Johnson explores the little-discussed spiritual aspect of artist Judy Chicago’s famous work The Dinner Party (1974–79), which includes art traditionally associated with women such as weaving, ceramics, and embroidery. Johnson proposes that both feminist and Judeo-Christian interpretations of the work are appropriate and contribute to the intention and scope of the project.

In Chapter 5, Maura Reilly analyzes Untitled Film Stills (1977–81) by photographer Cindy Sherman. These photos are of Sherman herself, acting out various solo scenarios, or evocative moments, from the lives of the female characters she plays. Reilly discusses and clarifies the difficulties inherent in mocking what one is mimicking.

Loretta Lorance writes in Chapter 6 about one of the world’s most prestigious architecture contests and how it was won by Zaha Hadid in 1982. Hadid’s award-winning work, The Peak Club, although never built, led to her increasingly acclaimed career as a Post-modern architect with several breakthrough buildings to her credit.

In the following chapter, Phillipa Kafka writes of Amy Tan’s novel, The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), showing the complex interweaving of relationships among Chinese American women, the mystical traditions of China, and more “scientific” Western traditions. Despite the ever-present cruelty towards women in the book, Kafka finds Tan to be hopeful about the future.

Author Denise Bauer’s Chapter 8 also deals with the oppression of women in her essay on The Piano (1993), a film directed by Jane Campion. Bauer discusses both the content and filmic techniques, which combine to make “a feminist tale of resistance.”

Next, Sarah Stevenson’s examination of playwright Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive (1997) explains Vogel’s depiction of how a survivor of sexual abuse becomes alienated from her body. Stevenson points to the themes of fragmentation, multiplication, and division that occur as the play moves among different time periods.

In Chapter 11, Christina Reitz analyzes music composer Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer-winning work Partita (2012). This ground-breaking vocal composition in four sections uses techniques from a variety of cultures to create new types of sounds and harmonies from the human voice, while still using familiar and historic forms in which to contain them.

Vocal and performance artist Beyoncé Knowles is the focus of Chapter 12. Deborah Johnson examines the artist’s feminist stance, particularly evident in her 2013 release, The Visual Album. Against a background of feminist history, Johnson points out the challenges inherent in declaring oneself a feminist while participating in a commercially driven, pop culture world.

Chapter 13 discusses installation artist Kara Walker and her work, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, a huge sculpture made of sugar and displayed in the abandoned Domino Sugar warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, during the summer of 2014. Author Rebecca Peabody examines the multiple meanings of the sculpture and the audience’s interactions with it within the context of the history of the oppression of African Americans and women.

Finally, author Jennifer Madden scrutinizes all aspects of the Broadway musical Waitress (2016) and Diane Paulus’ skillful direction of it. Directorial choices make a tremendous difference in how a play is perceived by an audience; Madden delves into Paulus’ aesthetic as expressed in this musical, asking the question, “Can a Broadway musical be feminist?”

Taken as a whole, these essays show us a spectrum of compelling and sometimes surprising ways in which women’s (art)work is constructed and displayed, read, and performed. It is our hope that this volume will attest not only to the significance of the art it presents, but also to the richness of interpretations and analyses made by our authors. We hope to share with you the exciting synergy of this cross-disciplinary juxtaposition as we expand the dialogue between women’s and gender studies, and the arts.

Acknowledgements

DEBORAH J. JOHNSON AND WENDY OLIVER

The realization of the second edition of this volume, with five new chapters and a new introduction, has been pure joy: an opportunity to acknowledge the sustained achievements of those artists who we have reclaimed from the first edition and who continue to speak to us in the 21st century; and an opportunity to bring to light several new, mostly young, artists who have revealed themselves as significant shapers of art and culture at this very moment. As the former Acquisitions Editor of this second edition, Kathryn Harrison, of Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., said when she approached us about the new book, “the time is right to remind people that women can, do, and will achieve at the highest levels, despite obstacles.” We couldn’t agree more.

The introduction of new chapters meant the elimination of two old ones, unhappily, but in no way is this a commentary on the value or distinction of these subjects from the first book. Each one has made a place in history that we are certain will stand for far longer than the years that separate our two editions. For the most part, the decision to forego an earlier chapter, while difficult, was primarily a function of avoiding duplication of themes, media, or disciplines. Similarly, we do not repeat here in our acknowledgements the names of those cited in the first edition—family, colleagues, and friends—who were so critical to its production. That part carried over from the first edition and modestly updated here, simply would not have held up without their contributions. We hope they, too, know that our gratitude extends far beyond the years between our two books.

Additional specific individuals at Providence College deserve special mention: students Josef Ricci ’18 and Sara Conway ’21 performed innumerable tasks relating to the physical production of the text, its content, and the acquisitions of photographs, rights, and other pertinent information. Their supervisor, Harriet Pappas, provided release time for them and technical support, often at a moment’s notice.

Artists and their representatives often went above and beyond their usual tasks and regulations to facilitate our work. Among them, we owe special thanks to Caroline Shaw, Zaha Hadid Architects, Jake Zellweger at Metro Pictures, Brent Sikkema at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Katherine Wilson, dance archivist at the National Ballet of Canada, Toronto, Mary Cynthia McGowan, assistant to Diane Paulus, and Karla Merrifield, photo archivist to Yoko Ono. Among our colleagues at Peter Lang, Inc., we extend our gratitude most especially to Kathryn Harrison and Erika Hendrix. Erika has been a careful and conscientious editor and problem-solver, and this book is much the better for that. For the intellectual generosity and insight of our contributing authors, without whom there would be no book, or at the very least, a lesser book, we are grateful beyond words. And at last, our deepest thanks must go to the artists, themselves, who have illuminated our intellectual, aesthetic, social, political, and spiritual lives with their creative genius against all odds; to paraphrase the rallying cry of all determined women in the 21st century, “nevertheless, they persisted.”

Introduction

DEBORAH J. JOHNSON AND WENDY OLIVER