Can You Name 5 Women Artists? ++ Brooklyn Museum Visit! --- (Extra Credit).

               The answer to that question used to be no. ( I couldn't name five male artists either, but I could name more male artists than female.) I was the kind of person who appreciated art when I stumbled upon it, but never went out of my way to actually look for it; and the art that I did see when I stumbled upon it, was mostly art done by men. So I thought, it could either be one of two things, right? Either women were not all that great at this art thing, or there weren't that many women artists to start with because maybe art just wasn't really their thing.

I have since learned that neither of the two are true.

There are just as many (maybe even more) female artists as there are men, and their works have been just as great as the work that men have produced. We just don't see any of it, or as much as we should of it, because of this cool thing called patriarchy. Here's how it works. For quite a long time, women were restricted to private spheres; i.e. their home, the kitchen inside the home, care of the home and the children inside the home...(hopefully you're getting my drift here.) Basically, women were relegated to all things domestic, whilst men were allowed to do fun stuff like work for your own wages, own property, amass wealth, etc. But I digress.

The point I am trying to make here is that the environment that men were surrounded by influenced their art, as did women's; and so obviously, art made by a woman differed from art made by a man because they were constantly in separate spheres. Women's art largely comprised of what is known today as the "decorative arts", which includes but is not limited to pottery, tie and dye, mosaics etc, whilst men's art comprised mostly of paintings or what is known as "fine art". Because patriarchy demands that the man be seen as superior to the woman, consequently, men's art was seen as superior to women's art. Men's art was great art, and women could not be afforded a seat on this table of greatness because their artistic expression was not the same as men's. This is why you and I could not name as much women artists as we could men.

I will share with you five of some of my favorite art done by women (in no particular chronological order), and I'll tell you why I find these artists and their art so amazing. Drumroll please.

•  Judy Chicago

When I was first introduced to The Dinner Party, I thought it was absolutely beautiful, but when I learned about the inspiration behind it, it instantly became a favorite. Truly, The Dinner Party is very near and dear to my heart.

The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party was created by Judy Chicago with the help of numerous other women, and that to me, is one of the things that makes it so amazing. As you can see above, the table is triangular, and the triangle, (which is also a symbol for femininity) is equilateral, signifying women's equality. There are thirteen place-holders or place settings on each side of the table; the number thirteen being reminiscent of the the number of people present at the Last Supper, (the twelve disciples + Jesus = 13. You're welcome) a connection which was obviously of much significance to Chicago, seeing as The Lord's Supper consisted of men and men alone.

What I find most fascinating about this artwork however, is the fact that Judy does not only involve the women artists of her time, but those before her. By so doing, she gives the women artists before her a platform, a chance, an opportunity to reveal themselves to the world, and to have their own spotlight, as they were not granted this opportunity in the past. By representing the women before her, she allows "her story" of history to be told; she enables them to write themselves back into the scripts of time and she shows appreciation to them. This is what absolutely blows my mind about this piece. 

She doesn't only represent white women, but also black women and women of color. The women's names written delicately across the floor as well as the many other women involved in the making of this installation, represent to me, a kind of sisterhood.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/109666/Sojourner_Truth_2_Plate
Sojourner Truth Plate

"Wing One of the table begins in prehistory with the Primordial Goddess and continues chronologically with the development of Judaism; it then moves to early Greek societies to the Roman Empire, marking the decline in women's power, signified by Hypatia's place setting. Wing Two represents early Christianity through the Reformation, depicting women who signify early expressions of the fight for equal rights, from Marcella to Anna van Schurman. Wing Three begins with Anne Hutchinson and addresses the American Revolution, Suffragism, and the movement toward women's increased individual creative expression, symbolized at last by Georgia O'Keeffe."

In my head, every woman from each wing, alongside the other 999 women whose names are written in gold on the floor of the piece, as well as the hundreds of women who contributed to the making of this work, are all holding hands and working together not only for their artworks to be seen as "great", but most importantly, for there to be equality between the sexes.

Seeing this in person at the Brooklyn Museum was honestly magical. More information on The Dinner Party here.

• Artemisia Gentileschi

.....is one badass artist. At least that's the first thing I thought when I first saw Judith slaying Holofernes. If there was a life before this one, I am quite certain that me and Artemisia were related by blood. 100% sure actually. 

I mean look at this greatness.

Judith Slaying Holofernes

You know I had to include this one.

Judith and her Maidservant

These happen to be my two favorite paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi. Before I was even informed of the story behind them, what I loved the most about the paintings is how it is impossible to miss the strength of these women; it seems to be jumping right out at you, forcing you to to acknowledge and confront it. I was even more delighted when I saw that Judy Chicago had reserved a place for her on the table at The Dinner Party above.

• Marina Abramovic

I don't remember when exactly it was that I stumbled upon Rhythm 0, but I do know that ever since I came across it, it has never escaped my memory. Rhythm 0, a performance first done in 1974, was set up my Marina Abramovic with the aim of testing the relationship between performer and audience. For the experiment, she placed 72 different objects on a table, objects which had the power to please, as well as objects that had the power to abuse or cause pain. The instructions were that she would allow the audience to use whichever object they wanted on her for six hours, and she would do nothing to them but sit and watch. As you can imagine, it was not a pretty sight at the end of it all.

http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/picture-galleries/2010/march/22/documenting-the-performance-art-of-marina-abramovi-in-pictures/?idx=11
Abramovic after performance of Rhythm 0

"Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained passive) people began to act more aggressively....“What I learned was that... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” ... “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”

This performance is especially significant to me because it reveals many things. For one, it exposes the fact that men don't know what the hell they want. If Marina had walked out of her house one morning with only rose petals covering her nipples and nothing more, men would scream from now until the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ about how she must be a whore and how she must have no self-respect, and does she know she's a role model for kids? what will the young girls think? I mean the woman would basically die from all the insults that would fly out of everyone's mouth. One would think that these people really mean what they're saying; but they obviously don't if she can host an interactive performance such as this and have people actually do such horrible things to her. 

A similar example would be, if, say, a female celebrity's nudes happened to leak online. All the men would talk about how they would totally "hit that" and etc etc; but if the same celebrity knowingly posted a racy picture of herself, we'd hear a dozen oh noooo but she's a mother coupled with some if you don't respect yourself, how do you expect men to respect you? alongside a bit of dress how you want to be addressed; this is how people get raped you know. Men will scoff and insult scantily-clad women all day but will lie with said women and also have a house filled with nude paintings. If you hate nudity so much, why paint naked women?

 Abramovic's performance set off so many questions in my head; but at the same time, helped me see things in a way I'd never seen them before. It's almost as if every time I come across Rhythm 0 I learn something new. The truth is this: men want you to be sexual; but only on their terms and on their terms alone. Every other thing apart from that is just you being a whore.   

(Sidenote: If you consider something or someone "dirty" and lacking "self-respect" and etc etc, why would you have sex with it/him/her? What does that make you?) 

Oh.

• Faith Ringgold

is my aunt. Yes. I have claimed her as my aunt and there is little you or anyone can do about it. Like Judy Chicago and Artemisia Gentileschi, I only recently learned of Miss Faith and I have not remained the same since. Faith Ringgold is a writer, painter, performance artist, speaker and mixed media sculptor. Her voice has a silkiness to it, a hint of strength. Perhaps what I love the most about her are her patchworks (though I've heard her book Tar Beach is one worth looking into). They remind me of Nigeria; more specifically, going to the market with my mom to buy Ankara fabric to sew our Christmas clothes with. The patterns were always so beautiful and the colors so radiant, I always wondered how they were made,  and it was always terribly difficult to choose just one. I love that her work looks like time and love has been put into it (as I imagine all artists do) -- but hers really leave me longing for home.   

Cotton Fields, Sunflowers, Blackbirds and Quilting Bees 
1997 

Dancing at the Louvre 
1991 

I love the vibrancy of her work and the stories that they tell. Love. Love. Love.

The Purple Quilt 
1986 

• Shirin Neshat

is a visual artist from Iran that I was introduced to last Tuesday, actually. I'd seen a snippet of her film Women Without Men, and was immediately compelled to go check out more of her and I am so happy I did. She is quite a small woman, but her presence seeps through the screen. Her films are so very moving; I love that she forces society to confront the lives that women have to live in a world ruled by men.  I love all her work and really admire her execution. 

Shirin Neshat

Rebellious Silence
1994

So there it is ladies and gentlemen. I am proud to announce that if I was stopped on the street at this very minute and asked to name 5 women artists, I would name ten not only because I am an over-achiever, but because I can. I can finally name more than five women artists and I am excited to learn about the millions of other women artists out there.

Works Cited.

1. "Framing the Veil." The Glass Magazine. 12 July 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. 
2.  "Documenting the Performance Art of Marina Abramović in Pictures | Art | Agenda | Phaidon." Phaidon. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. 
3.  Marina Abramović. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. http://abramovic.garageccc.com/en/pages/2
4. "Faith Ringgold - Biography." Faith Ringgold - Biography. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.
5. "Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party." Brooklyn Museum:. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.