Mothers of Invention articulates the links that bind feminist ideas to the evolution of contemporary art. This is a project that allowed each of us to delve into ideas that have been central to our thinking for over forty years. Digging deep into four crucial practices, we were able to illuminate how the feminist revolution also sparked an artistic one. We uncovered evidence of the ways that feminist ideas like mutualism, impurity, corporality and return to the handmade shook up a calcifying art establishment and provided the nourishment for new ideas and approaches to art. And we were able to trace the continuing influence of these ideas on artists today.
Our title and the organization of this book highlight the contributions of women artists to this transformative process. We began to think about the importance of certain pioneering women in laying the groundwork for current conceptions of performance, craft, abstraction and ecofeminism. These figures are indeed Mothers. The possibilities they gave birth to have gone on to shape today’s art world. We pay homage to their nurturing influences by opening each chapter with a photograph of a key figure in each of our narratives. These historical images serve as a link between the feminist revolution and the art of today.
In The Reckoning, we bring into focus the accomplishments of 24 acclaimed international women artists born since 1960 who have benefited from the groundbreaking efforts of their predecessors. The book is organized in four thematic sections: "Bad Girls" profiles artists whose work represents an assault on conventional notions of gender and racial difference. "History Lessons" offers reflections on the self in the context of history and globalization. "Spellbound" focuses on women’s embrace of the irrational, subjective, and surreal, while Domestic Disturbances" takes on women’s conflicted relationship to home, family, and security.
Now available in a revised and fully updated edition, this book examines the rise of women artists in the late 20th century, viewed through the work of 12 key figures.
“Why have there been no great women artists?” asked the prominent art historian Linda Nochlin in an intentionally provocative 1971 essay. In this book, four prominent critics and curators describe the strides made by women artists since the advent of the feminist movement and assess the changes that have occurred in their critical reception, commercial appeal, and institutional support. Following a comprehensive essay that looks back at the recent history of women artists, the authors examine the careers of an international selection of artists—Marina Abramovic', Louise Bourgeois, Ellen Gallagher, Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Elizabeth Murray, Shirin Neshat, Judy Pfaff, Dana Schutz, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero—considering each figure's accomplishments and her influence on contemporaries and younger artists.
