Abstract
Discusses emergence of radical feminist art & militant feminist artists of the 1970s. Work of Nancy Ellison, Alice Baber, Judy Chicago. Significant exhibitions including (Women Choose Women. Erotic Art by Women. Sexual Politics). Response & confrontation of the new avant-garde art. Major themes of 1970s feminist art. Political and aesthetic aspects.

From the Paper
"Feminist Art and the Avant-Garde


It has been noted that the artist-driven nature of radical art exhibitions that reigned by the late 1960s, when museum and gallery curators were increasingly usurping the role of the impresario, museums themselves were replacing galleries as venues, and formerly subversive artists were becoming "tamed" by a ?society of mass consumption" (Altshuler, p. 220). While this statement is undoubtedly true, it is also true that with the emergence of radical feminist art and militant feminist artists in the 1970s, a new spirit of the avant-garde was born. The story of the avant-garde has typically been one of ?mutual support among a community and reception of art by a public, all participants enmeshed in systems of personal and economic relations (Altshuler, p. 8)."

Abstract
This paper will examine three general approaches in modern feminist art by three feminist artists. It will be argued that these feminists assume radically different perspectives with regard to their mediums and objectives. Under the general categories of "the Body Politic" (feminism and politics), "the Body Social" (representations of the human body as a site of conflicting social values) and "Decoration vs. Abstraction" (hierarchical double standards with regard to "male" abstraction and "female" decorative arts), it will be shown how these differences in part reflect the shifting phases of modern feminist art, but more importantly signify the diverse multiplicity of modern feminist art.

Abstract
This paper examines the political origins of feminist art in the 1960's and addresses the social climate that brought on the birth of the art movement. It describes the divisive nature of the feminist versus universal art debate. The paper argues that the civil rights movement in companion with feminist art has ceased to be a "movement". In addition, the paper describes art works of well know female artists of this era.

From the Paper
"Feminist art as a named movement evolved in the context of the late 1960's early 1970's political climate. The movement contextually cannot be separated from larger civil rights movements and specifically those relating to women; like the sexual revolution, the women's liberation movement, and the formation and growth of groups like the National Organization for Women. Strictly speaking there can be no real separation of the feminist art movement from the civil rights movements in its context because so much of art of the era acted as the voice and vision of the messages of the movements as a whole. Though there are of coarse exceptions to this rule, art as a whole during this period was a demonstrative agent for social change and feminist art is definitely included in that context."

Tags:Carolee Scheerman, Cindy Sherman, Mimi Smith, Ana Mendieta Judy Chicago Civil rights Womens Movement

Abstract
The author of this essay evaluates several specific art pieces, and considers these in-relation to feminist theory and the feminist social movements of late 20th century society. The essay identifies feminist art as being UNdefined in style, medium, and representation, but wholly unified by political and social values that reflect a feminist investment in the image and role of women in art, and in society.

Abstract
The paper looks at how the art exhibitions in the 1970s featured "women's art" that was inherently bound up with the protest movement politics of that time. The paper discusses the revolutionary nature of these early exhibitions and the historical impact of the selection process used in constructing these exhibitions. It also mentions the fact that modern feminist art tends to focus on lesbian artists exclusively.

From the Paper
"Less significant today is the question of "who created it"
than what the creation means. Women artists with a radical feminist agenda are employing performance art much as Yoko Ono did some 35 or 40 years ago to publicize her own understanding of what it means to be a woman within a male-dominated social system and artistic milieu.
"Women Choose Women" was important not only because it was a "first." It was important because it demonstrated that women artists were no longer content to have males determine what works of theirs would be exhibited and how these exhibitions would be interpreted. Feminist art and scholarship have advanced significantly since that time."

Tags:confrontation, consciousness, orientation, protest, eroticism

Abstract
This paper describes the strategies used by the political art group, the Guerrilla Girls, in battling sexism and racism in the art world in the United States and abroad. The paper looks closely at three specific posters that the group has made and circulated around New York that uses statistics to point out the sexist practices of most museums and galleries.

From the Paper
"This paper is about Georgia O'Keeffe. It is also about Frida Kahlo. And Katha Kollwitz. And Alice Neel. These are just some of the pseudonyms used by the art group, the Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls are a political protest group that has been working as a collective in the United States and abroad since 1985. The women of this group want to keep their anonymity, and thus use the names of deceased female artists as their pseudonyms. In addition to this use of names, the Guerrilla Girls wear plastic gorilla masks when they appear in public spaces. The focus of the Guerrilla Girls is to battle sexism and racism in the art world; they..."

Tags:guerrilla, girls, protests

Abstract
This paper takes a look at how during the 1970s and 1980s, certain art critics sought to define women art through common features such as subject matter or use of technique. It further discusses how feminist art critics such as Lucy Lippard preferred the term female imagery while Eleanor Munro disliked that concept because of its sexual connotations. Female imagery had come to mean female sexual imagery which the male art establishment labeled as being feminist. Lippard states that female imagery was first used and should continue to be used to mean female sexual imagery.

From the Paper
"Why did some feminist art critics prefer to use the term sensibility rather than imagery? During the 1970s and 1980s, certain art critics sought to define women's art through common features such as subject matter or use of technique. Feminist art critics such as Lucy Lippard preferred the term `female imagery', while Eleanor Munro disliked that concept because of its sexual connotations. Female imagery had come to mean female sexual imagery, which the male art establishment labeled as being feminist. Lippard (164) states that "female imagery was first used, and should continue to be used, to mean female sexual imagery".

Tags:women, media, approaches

Abstract
This paper discusses the lives of Louise Bourgeois and Louise Nevelson by focusing on two examples of their artwork, which demonstrates feminism's entanglement with modern art in the United States. The author investigates, from an art history and cultural context, one representative large-scale work from each artist: Bourgeois' 1996-1997 sculpture "Spider" from the National Gallery of Art and Nevelson's most famous sculpture 1958 "Sky Cathedral" in the Smithsonian American Art Museum . The paper discusses how each of these two works challenges traditional notions of the "feminine" in positing new ideas of what it means to be female in the 20th century. The paper includes color photographs.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Louise Bourgeois' Spider
Louise Nevelson's Sky Cathedral
Comparison
The Sculptures in Context
Conclusion

From the Paper
""Sky Cathedral" can readily be seen to fit in with the tradition of Abstract Expressionist painting in America; indeed, it was executed in the 1950s, when Abstract Expressionism as a movement was in full swing. What is unusual, of course, is the fact that it is not a painting at all, but a sculpture. Still, one sees traces of the influence of Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, and other artists who used a large-scale "all over" form of expression in their works. At the same time, one sees traces of the Cubist influence in this sculpture, as well."

Tags:male-dominated, abstract expressionist, motif surrealist vagina

Abstract
This paper examines, compares and contrasts realism and expressionism in the works of Kathe Kollwitz and Paula Modersohn-Becker. It focuses on Modersohn-Becker's "Self-Portrait with Amber Necklace" and "Self Portrait on Her Sixth Wedding Anniversary" and Kathe Kollwitz's "Praying Girl" and "Small Self-Portrait". The paper shows how both artists comparably use a feminine self-expression, but they use differing variations of drawing and painting in their stylistic methods of art.

From the Paper
"The latest of the works that will be analyzed in this study will be the etched lithograph "Small Self Portrait" (1920) by Kathe Kollwitz. The grim countenance of the artist in this drawing reflects her old age, as well as a tired expression defining her life-long artistic commitment and loyalty to the working classes. This feminine image is not grandiose or tainted as are normative standards of beauty that were common in this period, and reveal the reality of an old woman who has seen a great many difficulties in life. In her life, she often sought out women models that reflected her "interest and sympathy for the hardships of the humble working women" (Prelinger 105). The hard lines of her face are depicted in the drawing, which connotes the hardship that she often wished to see in the working people in her community. In many cases, the dark lines and shadowing reflect the realist manner of clarity and proportion, which depict the essence of a clear-sighted view of the artist's presence. Often, this "reality" of her line and composition often dictated her desire to depict people as they appeared, not as an artist's own selfish distortion or beautification of life."

Tags:feminism, expression, style, abstraction

Abstract
This paper explains that Barbara Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls have taken traditional methods of art application and placed them within the normative modes of advertising methods. The author points out that inter-disciplinary arts, which are more than just an art technique, has become a public forum for feminist issues. The paper relates that, by opening the doors to the way that art is perceived, both Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls have taken art out of the traditional confines of museums and art houses and into modern media formats.

From the Paper
"This art analysis presents an inter-disciplinary study of the art and advertising methods of Barbara Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls. By taking various examples of advertising billboards, magazine ads and other forms of art used within the modern media, an inter-disciplinary mode of art is created through the work of these artists. Through the study of the work of both Barbara Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls, one can realize the feminism and cultural impact of mixed mediums within modern inter-disciplinary art."

Tags:art, disciplinary, feminism