Arlene Raven (Arlene Rubin: July 12, 1944,

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

– August 1, 2006,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York) was a feminist

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Life and work

Arlene Raven's parents were Joseph and Annette Rubin, middle-class Jewish-American parents, in Baltimore, Maryland."Joseph Rubin Obituary"
''Baltimore Sun'', August 20, 2014, via Legacy.com. Note that Joseph Rubin's obituary lists Arlene as a decedent family member, but spells the last name "Ravan". Her father was a bar owner, and her mother a homemaker. Raven earned an Artium Baccalaureatus from

Hood College Hood College is a private college in Frederick, Maryland. In fall 2018, Hood enrolled 2,052 students (1,092 undergraduate students; 960 graduate students). Thirty-eight percent of students are either members of under-represented racial or ethni ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in 1965, then went on to complete graduate study. She earned an MFA in painting from

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

and completed a PhD in art history from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1975. Raven was a major figure in the

Feminist Art Movement The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce feminist art, art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of co ...

and was part of an effort to educate women artists and provide them with opportunities to make and show work that was specifically about their experiences as women. In 1973, Raven co-founded the Feminist Studio Workshop with Judy Chicago and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. The goal of the Feminist Studio Workshop, an independent art school ultimately housed in the Los Angeles Woman's Building, was to "come together as a community of working individuals whose work grows out of our shared experiences as women and our shared social context," and an emphasis was put on "cooperation, collaboration, and sisterhood." That same year, Raven co-founded The Center for Feminist Art Historical Studies with fellow Johns Hopkins-educated art historian Ruth Iskin. The center was dedicated to serious research on women artists, developing a feminist art historical

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

, and creating a slide archive of work by women. Raven also co-founded and edited the women's culture magazine ''Chrysalis.'' In 1976, she was a founding member of The Lesbian Art Project; she herself was a lesbian as well. Members explored lesbianism through artwork, researched lesbian artists of the past, such as the painter

Romaine Brooks Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portrait painting, portraiture and used a subdued tonal Palette (painting), palette ...

, and questioned the cultural meaning of the very term "lesbian." She was also a founder of the Women’s Caucus for Art. In addition to the Feminist Studio Workshop, Raven also taught at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

, Maryland Institute College of Art,

Parsons The New School for Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

and

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

. In the 1980s she became the chief

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

for the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

.'' She curated ten exhibitions, including ones for the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...

and the Long Beach Museum of Art. One notable exhibition was "At Home," "which brought together many of the artists and ideas she had championed for the previous decade." In 2000, Raven became critic-in-residence at the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2002, she received the

Frank Jewett Mather Frank Jewett Mather Jr. (6 July 1868 – 11 November 1953) was an American art critic and professor. He was the first "modernist" (i.e., post-classicist) professor at the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University. He was a direct desc ...

Award for art criticism from the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understan ...

. Raven died of cancer at her home in Brooklyn, New York, on August 1, 2006, aged 62. She was survived by her father, her sister Phyllis elman and Nancy Grossman, her life partner of 23 years.

Books

Raven authored nine books, including: *''Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology'' (1988) (and editor) OCLC 581561464 *''Crossing Over: Feminism and Art of Social Concern'' (1988) OCLC 901903194 *''Art in the Public Interest'' (1989) OCLC 502660046 *''New feminist criticism : art, identity, action'' (1994) OCLC 27816089

Monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

s: *'' Nancy Grossman'' (1991) *'' June Wayne: Tunnel of the Senses'' (1997)

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Arlene 1944 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American women writers American art critics American art curators American art historians American book editors American feminist writers American lesbian artists American lesbian writers American women critics American women curators Deaths from kidney cancer in New York (state) American feminist artists Feminist historians Frank Jewett Mather Award winners George Washington University alumni Historians from Brooklyn Historians from Maryland Hood College alumni Jewish American feminists Johns Hopkins University alumni Journalists from Brooklyn LGBTQ people from Maryland Maryland Institute College of Art faculty People from Brooklyn American women art historians Writers from Baltimore