Our Visible Voice: Art as an Agent of Feminism
Visual representations of a woman’s world show that the female is much more than a male artist’s muse.
In traditional art, from the Renaissance onward, the artist has been male and the subject has been female. Men were given the authority to define the image of women and used this privilege to depict women either nude in portraits or as accessories to men. Until the late 1960’s, women striving to be artists often remained anonymous and did not convey any connotation of Feminism in their work. Throughout the 1970’s, the art being produced in the United States developed more political themes and began to address the issues with women’s representation in the art world. It was finally time for the woman to break free of her role as the subject matter of men’s entertainment. Men had painted and sculpted women as objects of pleasure, “something nice to look at”. They called their finished products master-pieces, asserting their superiority over their subject. The trope of the woman created by men is a direct contrast to masculinity and power: women are portrayed as delicate, simple, and unaffected by the disparity. Feminists began to urge for art that exposed the depth and the conflicts of female life which had been consistently overlooked.
Feminist art aims to provide a visual example of the true priorities, anxieties, expectations, and experiences of women, compelling the public to really consider what is presented to them. Artists work to direct attention toward social change by challenging the ideas of masculinity and expected gender roles. For some, the focus was on reclaiming the ownership of one’s body and sexuality which had been exploited by the patriarchy of traditional art. In the rise of the movement, it became increasingly important to create spaces that could bring all women together in embracing all platforms of expression. Art exhibition venues needed to also be available as lecture and debate halls, to form easily accessible centers of inclusiveness and empowerment.
The Feminist Revolution dismissed the rigid definitions of artistic methods and opened up new alleys of creative techniques, bringing popularity to unexpected installations and interactive exhibits, even testing the physical limits of the body. Experimentation with unconventional mediums of creation is an important aspect of Feminist art because it liberates the artist’s means of expression from the restrictive modes of representation in traditional art.
Art was becoming a powerful tool of education and resilience for Feminists in the United States; however, in Europe it was still an activity customarily reserved for the bourgeoisie, whom were unwelcoming of provocative material. Most activists could not afford the luxury of time to devote to seemingly idle projects, so Feminists were encouraged to be active and aggressive in their pursuit of equality.
Within the modern Feminist community, there are concerns that concentrating on female sexuality promotes the association of a woman’s identity solely with her body. This interpretation perpetuates the exploitative nature of patriarchal art. The image of the body can be detached from the connotation of sexuality, as is the objective of many artists. Feminist artists continue to challenge the accepted norms and pose questions to society in every form of self-expression imaginable.
