Lecture Notes: Women Artists Presentation

Introduction

Cindy Sherman - prolific contemporary photographer
Series involved her in all aspects (staging, costumes, posing)
Feminist overtones: commentary on objectification, gender roles
Not direct copies of master paintings but inspired by them
Poses and costumes reminiscent of the Renaissance
Biblical story: Judith decapitates Holofernes
- Judith presented with a knife, bloody dress
- Face detached, looking at the viewer – challenging the objectification
- Piece is 7 feet tall – reminiscent of monumental Renaissance art
- Tackiness and kitsch present (costumes, props)

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith
- Dynamic, determined figures, active maidservant
- Use of tenebrism, intense action captured
Caravaggio’s Judith
- Hesitant Judith, passive maidservant
- Less dynamic, more distant
Caravaggio’s ironic detachment despite being a violent person

Faith Ringgold - African-American artist, quilt medium
Inspired by African-American slave quilts
- Theory of quilts having embedded escape maps (disputed but supported by oral tradition)
- Medium associated with women, functionality, and beauty
Narrative: Fictional character Willa Marie Simone interacting with historical figures
- Challenges of inherent biases – women, especially African-American women, in liberating roles
- Combines painting on cloth into larger quilt, uses pre-printed fabrics

Jean-Claude Kwik-Desi-Smith - member of Shalish and Kootenai tribes
Response to Columbus quincentenary celebration (1992)
- Critique of European occupation of America, historical and contemporary inequities
- References to social issues: poverty, disease, unemployment
Allegory: Manhattan purchased for $24 worth of goods
- Crossed wires on land ownership between Europeans and Native Americans
- Contemporary representation of issues via collage
Imagery: Children’s toys, sport mascots, advertisements
- Red brushstrokes, often non-representational, expressing emotion
- Central canoe symbolizing Native American lack of agency