SUPPLEMENTED BY GUERRILLA GIRLS’ BEDSIDE COMPANION CHAPTERS 6 -END

20 T H AND 21 S T CENTURY ART

What is Art? (Art is What?)Carolyn Korsmeyer

Feminist Art

“One agenda (among many) of some feminist artists has been to question the terms of classification and evaluation employed in art and to defy those standards in their own work—thereby resisting the gendered ideals that pervade art traditions” (Korsmeyer 105).

How do the artists in Korsmeyer’s article do this?

What contemporary artists can you draw our attention to that do this sort of work (possible blog topic!)

Jana Sterbak’s Flesh Dress, 1987

Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress, 2010

Fine art tradition

Expression Theory “Hold that an

expressive work is something of power and lasting value that imparts to the viewer, reader, or listener a vision or idea or intuition that is unique” (110).

How important do you think uniqueness is in a work of art?

Formalist Approach “Evaluates

compositional qualities above all others in assessment of works of art” (111).

How do feminist critics react to formalist approaches?

FountainMarcel Duchamp1917/1964

“The complacency implicit in the assumption that we don’t need to formulate a concept of art because we already know it when we see it, seems an inadequate response to the puzzles that the artworld amply delivers” (112).

Interior ScrollCarolee Schneemann1973

On 115 Korsmeyer discusses the difficulty in understanding works like Schneemann’s.

What’s the connection between tradition, art movements, and feminism that Korsmeyer identifies?

How does this combine or conflict with Kraft?

Questions to ask:

What’s it about?What does it mean?Why was it made?When was it made?What social and artistic conversations does it

contribute to? “If you get good answers to those questions, it’s art.” Arthur Danto, 1997

Silueta Works in Iowa Ana Mendieta, 1976-1978

Serie arbol de la vida Ana Mendieta, 1976

Use of the artist’s body as material

Untitled Film Still #6Cindy Sherman, 1978

UntitledCindy Sherman, 1989

Use of the artist's body as model

“TRADITION REMAINS THE OVERARCHING POINT OF REFERENCE FOR FEMINIST AND

POSTMODERN ARTISTS, WHO REFER CONTINUALLY TO THE PAST, WHETHER

IRONICALLY, PARODICALLY, OR CONFRONTATIONALLY” (128) .

What is art?