Contemporary art is art produced by the second half of the 20th century. Whether its paintings, sculptures, videos, or photography, women have come so far into the art world far past the being under a male gaze. Women can go to be social advocates if they wanted to and express themselves in any form. The diversity has translated into today's world is that women have the right to say or do anything they feel. There are no limits and it has shown with the artwork made during this time. “While some women artists were politically engaged, others have embraced philosophical or theoretical models and still others are working intuitively” (Chadwick 38)
The artists that stood out the most was artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual Judy Chicago. Her work titled, the Dinner Party was created between 1974 and 1979 is located at the Brooklyn Museum. It is known as the first feminist artwork ever made. Due to the triangular shape the table formed symbolizes Power and equality. Chicago picked 39 women that had an impact on women's progression to be at her table. The triangular table sits 39 place settings, each designed to the women she picked. Each place setting has a hand-painted china plate, ceramic cutlery, chalice, and a napkin. Underneath the table is called the Heritage Floor which is made up of more than 2,000 tiles, each with inscriptions of 998 women and only one man which was Kresilas because it was a mistaken name for another female.
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| Judy Chicago, The dinner party, 1974-79 |
Barbara kruger is an American conceptual who challenged cultural assumptions by manipulating images and text in her photographs, which represented power, identity, and sexuality. She once started her career as a designer than became a picture editor for several publications. Kruger emphasizes the ways in which language manipulates and undermines the assumption of masculine control over language and viewing. In her artwork includes tests where she advocates equality. longer to explore the subjects of gender and identity. Much of Kruger's workplaces a message in a white font with bold letters in a red box, usually with an image in the background. She has made a great impact in today's world with her involvement in the street brand “Supreme”. When Supreme came along in 1994, the creator James Jebbia stole the logo format for the brand from Kruger.
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| Barbara Kruger, Untitled (your gaze hits the side of my face), 1981 |
Another Contemporary artist is Cindy Sherman. Her she reveals the instability of gender and challenges the idea that there might be an inmate unmediated female sexuality. She does film and advertising media where she uses a real woman to expose the As stated, “Many of them drawn from the 1950s to 1960s; their use enabled her to act out the psychoanalytic notion of femininity as a masquerade” Her goal was to make an impact so women can have a fixed and stable identity. In this artwork, she positioned herself not based on the traditional poses women used to do. Her position for centuries has objectified and finished the female body, but she is delivering it as normal. Her image functions as an object both of contemplation and of repulsion.
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Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1979
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Another contemporary artist, Marina Abramovic, is known for pushing past perceived limits of the body and mind. She explored the relationship between artist and audience, through performances that challenge both herself and, in many instances, participants emotionally, intellectually, and physically. The concepts inspiring her works are key, as is the use of her own body to convey her ideas. After the death of her children, she shows the emotions in her performance. Her audience feels her emotions and ends up feeling the same way after a short period. She leaves her impact after each person and also, they all leave an impact on her.
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| Marina Abramovic, the artist is present, 2010 |
Finally, the last contemporary artist is Ana Mendieta who was born in Havana, Cuba but grew up in the United States where she was raised in orphanages and foster homes. Her start in the art world was when she studied at the University of Iowa and met many New York artists. Mendieta finished her education in Iowa than moved to New York. Her work became conceptual and performance-based, the staged events were documented by photographs and that too became her artwork. Mendieta's most famous work is her Silueta series, where she would lay down, have her body outlined in the ground, then putting flowers, stones, or sticks around it. Her work goes against the normal way of making art. It pushes the boundaries to what art is and can be, to the way the audience takes it in and interprets the message behind the art.
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| Ana Mendieta, body tracks, 1970s |
Works cited:
Guerrilla Girls (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Books
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, And Society. Fifth ed., Thames & Hudson, 2012.
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