The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce
art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of contemporary art. It also seeks to bring more visibility to women within
art history
Art history is the study of Work of art, 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.
Tradit ...
and art practice. The movement challenges the traditional
hierarchy
A hierarchy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy ...
of arts over crafts, which views hard sculpture and painting as superior to the narrowly perceived '
women's work
Women's work is a field of labour assumed to be solely the realm of women and associated with specific stereotypical jobs considered as uniquely feminine or domestic duties throughout history. It is most commonly used in reference to the unpaid la ...
' of
arts and crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
such as
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
,
sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening pieces of textiles together using a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeo ...
,
quilting
Quilting is the process of joining a minimum of three layers of textile, fabric together either through stitching manually using a Sewing needle, needle and yarn, thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting ...
and
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
s.
Women artists have overturned the traditional view by, for example, using unconventional materials in
soft sculptures, new techniques such as stuffing, hanging and draping, and for new purposes such as telling stories of their own life experiences.
The objectives of the feminist art movement are to
deconstruct the traditional hierarchies, represent women more fairly and to give more meaning to art. It helps construct a role for those who wish to challenge the mainstream (and often masculine) narrative of the art world. Corresponding with general developments within
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, and often including such self-organizing tactics as the consciousness-raising group, the movement began in the 1960s and flourished throughout the 1970s as an outgrowth of the so-called
second wave of feminism. It has been called "the most influential international movement of any during the
postwar period
A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, w ...
."
History
1960–1970

The 1960s was a period when women artists wanted to gain equal rights with men within the established art world, and to create
feminist art
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 ...
, often in non-traditional ways, to help "change the world".
This movement was actually started in the United States and
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
in the late 1960s and is often referred to as "second-wave" feminism. And In the 1960s and 1970s, many artists began to practice art that showed their own reality in their works. The artists at the time realized that it was wrong for art historians and museums to pay more attention to male artists and only to their paintings, and that women should further integrate topics such as the social treatment of women, and the frequent discrimination against women into their works.
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
(1911–2010) and German-American
Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...
(1936–1970) were some early feminist artists.
On 20 July 1964
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
, a
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...
, avant-garde artist, singer, and activist, presented ''Cut Piece'' at the Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan where she sat still as parts of her clothing were cut off of her, which meant to protest violence against women. She performed it again at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in 1965.
Her son, Sean, participated in the artist performance on 15 September 2013 at the Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''s Jonathan Jones considered it "one of the 10 most shocking performance artworks ever."
Mary Beth Edelson
Mary Elizabeth Edelson (; February 6, 1933 – April 20, 2021) was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement in the United States, feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first-generation feminist artists". Edelson ...
's ''Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper'' (1972) appropriated
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
's ''The Last Supper'', with the heads of notable women artists collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles. Benglis was among those notable women artists. This image, addressing the role of religious and art historical iconography in the subordination of women, became "one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement."
Women artists, motivated by
feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...
and the
feminist movement
The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...
, began the feminist art movement in the 1970s. Feminist art represented a shift away from
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, where art made by women was put in a different class to works made by men. The movement cultivated a new feminist consciousness, a "freedom to respond to life...
nimpededby traditional male mainstream." Or, as
Griselda Pollock
Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock (born 11 March 1949) is a British art historian, whose work focuses on analyzing visual arts and visual culture through global feminist and postcolonial feminist lenses. Since 1977, Pollock has been an influen ...
and
Rozsika Parker
Rozsika Parker (27 December 1945 – 5 November 2010) was a British psychotherapist, art historian and writer and a feminist.
Biography
Parker was born in London and spent her early years in Oxford, studying at Wychwood School.
Between the y ...
put it—a separation of Art with a capital "A" from art made by women produced a "feminine stereotype".
The Dinner Party
''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by American feminist artist Judy Chicago. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Eleanor of Aquitaine, ...
by
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, an art installation symbolically representing
women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that Woman, women have played in history and Historiography, the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights, women's rights throughout recorded history, ...
, is widely considered the first epic feminist artwork which was very significant in Feminist art.
There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. And each place setting includes a hand-painted china plate, ceramic cutlery and chalice, and a napkin with an embroidered gold edge. And the goal of the artwork was "end the ongoing cycle of omission in which women were written out of the historical record." Moreover, Chicago said she was "scared to death of what I'd unleashed," however, she was also "I had watched a lot of young women come up with me through graduate school only to disappear, and I wanted to do something about it."
This demand for equality in representation was codified in the
Art Workers' Coalition The Art Workers' Coalition (AWC) was an open coalition of artists, filmmakers, writers, critics, and museum staff that formed in New York City in January 1969. Its principal aim was to pressure the city's museums – notably the Museum of Modern Art ...
's (AWC) Statement of Demands, which was developed in 1969 and published in definitive form in March 1970. The AWC was set up to defend the rights of artists and force museums and galleries to reform their practices. While the coalition sprung up as a protest movement following Greek kinetic sculptor
Panagiotis "Takis" Vassilakis's physical removal of his work Tele-Sculpture(1960) from a 1969 exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York, it quickly issued a broad list of demands to 'art museums in general'.
Alongside calls for free admission, better representation of ethnic minorities, late openings and an agreement that galleries would not exhibit an artwork without the artist's consent, the AWC also demanded that museums 'encourage female artists to overcome centuries of damage done to the image of the female as an artist by establishing equal representation of the sexes in exhibitions, museum purchases and on selection committees'.
1980-1990
The feminist art movement in the 1980s and 1990s built upon the foundations laid by earlier feminist art movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Feminist artists throughout this time period aimed to question and undermine established gender roles, confront issues of gender injustice, and give voice to women's experiences in the arts and society at large. A wide range of artistic disciplines, such as painting, sculpture, performance art, photography, video art, and installations, were included in the movement.
The portrayal of women in art was one of the main issues feminist artists in the 1980s and 1990s focused on. They challenged and subverted standard representations of women as passive objects or muses while criticizing the male-dominated art canon. Many feminist artists investigated topics of sexuality, identity, and the social construction of gender while reclaiming the female body as a source of power. Moreover, The 1980s and 1990s feminist art movement placed a strong emphasis on the examination of both individual and group experiences. Photographic and collage techniques were used by artists like Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger to explore themes of identity, self-representation, and the formation of gender roles in popular culture. They questioned the idea of a rigid and fundamental feminine identity and emphasized how gender is performative.
In detail for the example of artists, Barbara Kruger, Sherry Levin since the late 1980 s. Cindy Sherman, Louis Bourgeois, Rosemary Trokel, Kiki Smith, Helen Chedwick and others stood out. Cindy Sherman gave a visual shock through photographs she took while transforming into a specific character or acting herself. Sherry Levine intentionally reproduced the works of masters to reveal the fiction of originality and artistry. Kiki Smith urged people to reflect on the lives of modern people through damaged human ridicule.
Institutional critique emerged as a prominent component of the feminist art movement in the 1980s and 1990s. Along with producing their own works, feminist artists also looked at and opposed the patriarchal structures and restrictive practices that prevail in art institutions. They sought to remove the obstacles that prevented women from participating fully and being taken seriously in the art industry. Here are a some examples of how artists of this time engaged in institutional criticism: Guerrilla Girls which was a collective of anonymous feminist artists, emerged in the 1980s. ,The Museum of Modern Art Protest in 1984 which the protesters criticized MoMA for its exclusionary practices and demanded more representation for women and artists of color, and The "Bad Girls" Exhibition in 1994, which was aiming to upend the currently male-dominated art world and make room for the perspectives and experiences of female artists.
These illustrations show how feminist artists participated in institutional critique by contesting the discriminatory attitudes and practices that exist in art institutions. They planned demonstrations, interventions, and shows to challenge the current quo, demand more representation for female artists, and draw attention to racial and gender disparities in the art world. Feminist artists made a contribution to the continuous evolution of the art world by promoting inclusivity and providing opportunities for upcoming generations of female artists.
Overall, Women's art in the 1980s developed more diversely, by also the magazine ''
ARTnews
''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...
'' in the U.S. published praise for female artists being in a leading position without being subordinate to male art. However, as the overall flow of the art world tends to return to traditional styles and materials, feminists also have neo-expressionism. He showed a tendency to ride with new conceptualism.
There are also feminist forms of
postmodernism
Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...
which emerged in the 1980s. Feminist art movements emerged in
the United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
; Europe, including Spain;
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
; Canada; and Latin America in the 1970s.
The women's art movements spread world-wide in the latter half of the 20th century, including Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Russia, and Japan. Women artists from Asia, Africa and particularly Eastern Europe emerged in large numbers onto the international art scene in the late 1980s and 1990s as
contemporary art
Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
became popular worldwide.
2000s
The contemporary feminist art movement is now following various directions with the development of electronic technology and the new forms of entertainment in the 21st century.
Major exhibitions of contemporary women artists include ''
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
WACK (1420 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a full service format and licensed to Newark, New York, United States. The station is owned by Waynco Radio, Inc., and features programming from CBS News Radio, Premiere Networks, SportsMap, ...
'' curated by Connie Butler, SF MOMA, 2007, ''Global Feminisms'' curated by
Linda Nochlin
Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art hi ...
and Maura Reilly at the Brooklyn Museum, 2007, ''Rebelle'', curated by Mirjam Westen at MMKA, Arnheim, 2009, ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang! 45 Years of Art and Feminism'' curated by Xavier Arakistan at Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2007, ''Elles at Centre Pompidou'' in Paris (2009–2011), which also toured to Seattle Art Museum. have been increasingly international in their selection. This shift is also reflected in journals set up in the 1990s like ''
n.paradoxa''.
Feminist art movement and media
One of the things that gives people the most entertainment in the modern era as the times progressed is the works of art from the media. For example, things like 'music', 'drama', 'movie', and 'game'. The development in music is particularly notable. In terms of Hip-Hop music, many hip-hop songs promote the art of
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
. Taking South Korea as an example, many female hip-hop singers will openly produce hip-hop songs about feminism to speak out for some unequal gender issues in societ
For example, the Korean female rapper
Bibi (singer), BIBI released a song called "Animal Farm" this year, which expresses women's resistance to gender discrimination against women in a patriarchal society and the issue of male coagulation by borrowing the classic footage from "
Kill Bill
''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts action film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a group of assassins ( Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael ...
".
Feminist art worldwide
India
Feminist art is a diverse realm and differs immensely throughout the world.
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
is one of many Southeast Asian countries to have prominent feminist art regarding cultural and systemic factors related to gender marginalization, and art inspired by the experience of women living in the Global South.
Sutapa Biswas is one such artist. Born in Santiniketan, India, her artwork questions gender and racial hierarchies relating to colonization and concepts such as space and time. Biswas showcased an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1985 in London where her piece, ''Housewives with Steak-Knives,'' became widely known and exhibited. ''Housewives with Steak-Knives'' blends elements of anti-colonialism, Hindu religious figures, and remembrance of past women artists.
Indian feminist art is also prominent in social media. Priyanka Paul, a young artist based out of
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
, creates feminist art relating to the
Indian caste system
The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes. It has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, espe ...
,
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
, and the sexualization of Indian women's bodies. Paul's piece, ''Nangeli,'' is an illustrated, fictional magazine cover of three topless women. Paul posted it to Instagram in 2017. This piece was meant to memorialize Nangeli, a woman of a low caste in the Ezhava community who protested the taxation of women of lower castes who wished to cover their breasts by removing her own breast. Paul's piece calls attention to the oversexualization of women's breasts and the oppressive culture of the caste system.
Similarly, digital artist
Kruttika Susarala's portrait of
Satyarani Chadha, an anti-
dowry
A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage.
Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...
movement activist who lost her own daughter to dowry, seeks to be a reminder of the women who have died due to the demands of dowry practices. The piece, also posted on Instagram, uses the digital art medium to represent Chadha as the face of the ongoing movement for women's rights, showing her with anguish in her eyes and dressed in ''
khadi
Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi as Swadeshi movement, ''swadeshi (of homeland)'' for the freedom struggle of India and the term is used throughout the Indian sub ...
'' plain clothes, which are indicative of a social rights activist.
South Africa

Artists from
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
have made immense contributions to the feminist art genre. Feminist art from South Africa often focuses on themes of colonialism, poverty, violence,
and African women's representation, including Black women's bodies and hypersexualization from colonialist standpoints.
The Philani Printing Project, created in 1997, provided training for mothers in painting, textile making, and design. The trainees then have access to a large workshop with several art supplies and materials. The Printing Project was created to give impoverished South African women access to valuable skills, education, financial security, and the ability to represent themselves. Additionally, several works by Philani artists address social and political issues regarding gender discrimination, labor exploitation, and physical violence. One example of a Philani project is ''Stop Crime'', a sizeable wall hanging showcasing several women in a dark street with the words "we want to walk safe in the streets" on their tank tops.
Children are included in the work as well, surrounded by images intended to depict danger, such as a skull and crossbones. ''Stop Crime'' is meant to bring light to violence against women and children and advocate for changes in South Africa in order to end oppression of these groups.
Tracey Rose is another South African feminist artist. Rose tackles racist imperialism in Africa by the West, racial stereotypes, and oversexualization of the Black female body in her 2001 piece, ''Venus Baartman.'' This piece is a self portrait that uses a photography medium and depicts a side view of Rose naked and crouched, moving through an open, green field with her eyes on something out of view of the image. ''Venus Baartman'' echoes the experience and cultural perception of
Sarah Baartman
Sarah Baartman (; 1789 – 29 December 1815), also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under ...
, an African woman who was forcibly taken to Europe in 1807 and used as entertainment for Europeans as they gazed upon her physique as a spectacle. Rose's piece calls attention not only to Baartman's story, but also to the history of colonization, exploitation, and oppression, especially regarding African women's bodies and the hypersexualization of them from Western points of view.
Another well known feminist artist based out of South Africa is
Billie Zangewa. Born in Malawi in 1973, Zangewa studied art at
Rhodes University
Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province.
Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
and now lives in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
.
Her works utilize themes of motherhood, domesticity, femininity, and the intersections of race and gender.
Many of Zangewa's pieces are combinations of drawings, hand sewing textiles together, and prints. Several depict everyday images such as her infant son sleeping, Zangewa drinking coffee at home, and a couple showering together. Zangewa holds these images of home life as an important aspect of feminist activism, stating, "I use fabric and sewing, which traditionally is a female pastime, to empower myself. I tell my personal story, how it's happening on the home front, and show the intimate life of a woman, which usually we're not encouraged to do."
Zangewa's art has been exhibited all over many major cities in the United States, several countries in Europe, and in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Cape town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
, and
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
.
Cuba
Cuba's feminist art scene reflects the country's rich history and social landscape. Most art in Cuba has been male-dominated, but radical feminist artists who are women regularly challenge the status quo. A large amount of feminist art in Cuba is directly related to the economic and political situation in the country, demonstrating themes of US
imperialism
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
and economic struggles.
Tania Bruguera
Tania Bruguera (born 1968 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban artist and activist who focuses on installation and performance art. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she works as head of media and performance at Harvard University. Bruguera has ...
is a Cuban radical feminist artist born in 1968.
Much of Bruguera's work is highly political, encourages citizens to dream of a different nation, and demands changes within the Cuban government. Bruguera's 2009 performance art piece, ''Tatlin's Whisper #6,'' was a unique performance in that members of the audience had one minute of censorship free speech time where they spoke of their desires and imaginations of a different society. As each participant stood in front of the podium to speak, a white dove was placed on their shoulder as a nod to the famous image of the dove that landed on
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
's shoulder after a lengthy public speech.
The image of the speaker with the dove and the podium were meant to create a juxtaposing image between what Castro promised his citizens and what they were currently experiencing.
The performance was deemed "shameful" and "un-cultural" by Cuban authorities. Five years later, in 2014, Bruguera attempted to restage ''Tatlin's Whisper #6,'' but was arrested and charged for incitement to break the law. Outrage ensued among other artists and political dissidents, and Bruguera was eventually let out of prison after months of interrogation.
Multi-disciplinary art movement
Feminist art (feminist art movement) frequently blended elements from numerous movements such as conceptual art, body art, and video art into works that delivered a message about the experience of women and the need for gender equality.
Performance art

During the 1970s and until now (21st century), performance art and the feminist art movement well interact with each other, as the aspect of 'performance' is an effective way for women artists to communicate a physical and visceral message
The interaction of art with the viewer throughout performance art has significant impact emotionally. Moreover, as the artists and works are combined into one art and there is no separation, performance art, and feminist art is also a nice element to evaluate the artists' actual experiences. It strives to question and criticize patriarchy, gender norms, and female oppression. Feminist performance artists work to empower women, bring attention to gender inequality, and spark social and political change through their bodies, voices, and other artistic forms.
For example,
Regina José Galindo
Regina José Galindo (born August 27, 1974 Guatemala City) is a Guatemalan artist who specializes in performance art. She is currently one of the main artists working in this medium in Latin America, and is also a poet. Her work is characterized b ...
, is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in
body art Body art is art in which the artist uses their human body as the primary medium.Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 88 Emerging from the context of Conceptual Art during the 1970s, Body art may include performanc ...
. Galindo's female body works focus on two major representations: First, the representation of the "excessive, carnalized, grotesque and abject female body"; Second, on the "female body that has been subjected to violence at a private and public level". Galindo uses the body to explore "
female sexuality
Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sexual activ ...
, notions of feminine beauty,
race or domestic and national violence".
For another example, there is
Karen Finley
Karen Finley (born 1956) is an American performance artist, musician, poet, and educator. The case, '' National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley'' (1998), argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, was decided against Finley and the other artist ...
, a female performer who performs nude, by shocking her audiences with violent and sexually abusing stories. Within Finley's performance, she used to stand at the point as "victims of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
,
child abuse
Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
,
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
,
domestic violence
Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...
and
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
". Finely is using her body and the nudity from her body performance to "speak for other women who are unable to speak for themselves...". Finely's body is a medium to present as a "site of oppression". Though, the critique Finely's nudity performances as "pornographic", Finely believes that a woman's body can become a representative of all the bodies of all women who had/have/will be suffered from those oppression.
Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and ...
's "Interior Scroll" is a famous performance from 1975 in which she stood on a table, gently unrolled a scroll tucked inside her vagina, and read aloud from it. The artwork criticizes the male-dominated art world and stands for the reclamation of women's bodies.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
's "
The Dinner Party
''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by American feminist artist Judy Chicago. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Eleanor of Aquitaine, ...
" This enormous installation piece was created between 1974 and 1979 and depicts a triangular table with place settings for 39 famous women in history. The complex designs on each dish, which celebrate women's accomplishments and raise awareness about the exclusion of female contributions, resemble vulvae.
Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...
's "
Rhythm 0
''Rhythm 0'' was a six-hour long endurance art performance by the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović performed in the Galleria Studio Mora in Naples in 1974. This was the final performance of Abramović's ''Rhythm'' ''Series'', followi ...
" was a durational performance from 1974 in which she invited the audience to use 72 objects on her in any way they chose. Power, vulnerability, and the objectification of women were all topics that were covered throughout the performance.
Orlan's "The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan" In this continuing performance piece that dates back to 1990, the artist has had her face altered through several plastic procedures in order to conform it to the ideals of Western art history. Orlan examines problems of identity and the nexus between art and technology by questioning beauty standards and the commodification of women's bodies.
Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation art, installation, video art, video, performance art, perform ...
's "The Institute of the Feminine Mystique" The purpose of this performance, which took place in 1977, was to discuss the expectations that society has for women. In order to question these established positions, Lacy and her collaborators created a pretend institute that offered services like cooking classes, weight loss programs, and self-help lectures.
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of Feminist movements and ideologies, feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985, born out of a picket against the Museum of ...
' ''The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist'' Since the 1980s, The Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous collective of feminist artists, have used performance art to highlight racial and gender disparities in the art industry. They are holding up a list of benefits that male artists have over their female counterparts in this particular piece while wearing gorilla masks.
Body art
Body art Body art is art in which the artist uses their human body as the primary medium.Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 88 Emerging from the context of Conceptual Art during the 1970s, Body art may include performanc ...
can be tattoos, body piercing, branding, scarification, dermal anchors, and three-dimensional art or body modifications such as beading. Body art can be an example of performance art and they can be overlapped in feminist art. For example, there is Nil Yalter's film ''The Headless Woman (Belly Dance)''. It focuses on a woman's stomach on which text has been inscribed. And the woman keeps writing the text on the belly (body art). And as the woman begins her belly dance, all we see is the soft flesh of her undulating stomach, and the pulsing text.
An example is ''Cut Piece'' by
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
: In 1964, Ono performed''Cut Piece'', in which she invited the audience to cut portions of her garment with scissors while she sat on a stage wearing her nicest dress. Topics like vulnerability, agency, and objectification of women were all touched on in the performance.
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative ca ...
's ''Your Body is a Battleground'': This famous piece of art from 1989 combines a black-and-white image of a woman's face with the bold words "Your Body is a Battleground." In her essay, Kruger addresses topics including body commodification, reproductive rights, and control.
Hannah Wilke
Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter; (March 7, 1940 – January 28, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist. Her work is known for exploring issues of feminism, sexuality and femininity.
Bio ...
's ''Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2'' In this performance from 1976, Wilke descended a stairway slowly while wearing sculptures made out of chewed-up gum. She fought the commodification of women's bodies, the male gaze, and sexualization in her piece.
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American ar ...
's ''The Pregnant Woman'': Mendieta explored the relationship between her body and nature in a series of performances from the 1970s. She utilized her bare body as a canvas for ''The Pregnant Woman'', pushing it against various objects like rocks and trees to make imprints. The piece honors the female body's capacity for conception and childrearing.
By Suzanne Lacy, ''In Mourning and In Rage'': A group of women, directed by Suzanne Lacy, laid down on the grass of a Los Angeles cemetery in the shape of a huge peace sign for this performance in 1977. The concert was a protest against violence against women, especially the murders committed by the
Hillside Strangler at the time.
Another example is
Orlan's ''Redressing III''. In this 1990 work, Orlan has plastic surgery while awake and broadcasts the procedure to a gallery audience. The piece questions gender norms, masculine gaze, and the pressure on women to uphold specific standards of beauty.
These examples show how feminist body art challenges and subverts conventional ideas about the female body by bringing attention to issues of power, control, and agency and reclaiming women's bodies as places for resistance and self-expression.
Video art
Starting in the late 1960s, video art appeared in the art world as a unique art form using video technology as a visual and sound medium. And unlike classic and traditional arts like painting and sculpture, video art was not only dominated by men in history. With the aid of new technology, female artists were able to tell their own stories and share their perspectives, resulting in new works about women that would serve as a repository for the feminist history of contemporary art. The video was seen as a trigger for a media revolution that could put the means of television transmission in the hands of the general population, giving the feminist art movement a huge opportunity to expand its audience. There were female artists who demonstrated feminism through video art such as
Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Elisabeth Rist, birth name ''Elisabeth Charlotte Rist'' (born 21 June 1962 in Grabs) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art. Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abst ...
,
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat (; born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininit ...
,
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video art, video, installation art, installation, sculpture, site-specific art, site-specific and performance art, performance, a ...
,
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and film professor at the City College of New York.
Akerman is best known for her films (1974), (1975), and '' News from Home'' (1976). The ...
,
Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, "a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s".[Sadie Benning
Sadie T. Benning (born April 11, 1973) is an American artist, who has worked primarily in video, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and sound. Benning creates experimental films and explores a variety of themes including surveillance, ge ...]
, and more.
An example is the 1975 book "
Semiotics of the Kitchen" by
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video art, video, installation art, installation, sculpture, site-specific art, site-specific and performance art, performance, a ...
: In this renowned video performance, Martha Rosler parodies the structure of a cooking show, but instead of showcasing her domestic prowess, she vents her resentment and rage by wielding kitchen implements. The show criticizes traditional gender norms and the notion that women should be submissive and domestic.
Dara Birnbaum
Dara Nan Birnbaum (October 29, 1946 – May 2, 2025) was an American video and installation artist based in New York City.
Birnbaum entered the nascent field of video art in the mid-to-late 1970s, challenging the gendered biases of the period ...
's "
Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman" (1978–1979): The popular television program "Wonder Woman" is dissected in Birnbaum's video art work by focusing on and replaying specific scenes where the lead character assumes her heroic persona. By editing the video, Birnbaum explores how women are portrayed in the media and challenges the constraints and standards put on female characters.
Suzanne Lacy's "The Cyphers" (1977–1978): The experiences of African American women living in Watts, Los Angeles, are the main subject of Lacy's video work. Lacy emphasizes the perspectives and experiences of these women through interviews and performances, shedding focus on the interconnectedness of race, gender, and class and questioning prevailing myths.
Annette Messager
Annette Messager (born 30 November 1943) is a French visual artist. She is known for championing the techniques and materials of outsider art. In 2005, she won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale for her artwork at the French pavilion, F ...
's "A Short History of the Wheel" was published in 1972. In this work of video art, Messager offers a feminist critique of the demands imposed on women by society. She explores issues of power, oppression, and the constrained roles given to women through a sequence of symbolic images and acts.
Notable artists and collectives of the movement
Artists: 19th century
*
Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a Realism (arts), realist style. Her paintings include ''Ploughing in the N ...
(1822–1899)
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Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (born Barbara Leigh Smith; 8 April 1827 – 11 June 1891) was an English educationalist and artist, a philanthropist and her greatest skill was as a facilitator. She was a leading mid-19th-century feminist and women ...
(1827–1891)
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Kristiane Konstantin-Hansen (1848–1925)
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Marie Bashkirtseff
Marie Bashkirtseff, born Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva (; – 31 October 1884), was an émigré artist who was born into a noble family on their estate near the city of Poltava. She lived and worked in Paris, and died at the age of 25.
L ...
(1858–1884)
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Wilhelmina Weber Furlong (1978–1962)
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Maria Dulębianka
Maria Dulębianka (21 October 1861 – 7 March 1919) was a Polish people, Polish artist and activist, notable for promoting women’s suffrage and higher education.
She studied art in Warsaw, Vienna and Paris, two of her works gaining distinc ...
(1861–1919)
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Jessie Newbery (1864–1948)
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Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919)
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Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side (Pittsburgh), North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, whe ...
(1845–1926)
Artists: 20th and 21st centuries
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Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...
(born 1946)
*
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (born 1959 in Hämeenlinna, Finland) is a contemporary visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Helsinki.
Ahtila is most known for her multi-panel cinematic installations. She experiments with narrative storytellin ...
(born 1959)
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Ghada Amer (born 1963)
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Emma Amos (1937–2020)
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Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting,Amirkhanian, Cha ...
(born 1947)
*
Janine Antoni
Janine Antoni (born January 19, 1964) is a Bahamian–born American artist, who creates contemporary work in performance art, sculpture, and photography. Antoni's work focuses on process and the transitions between the making and finished product, ...
(born 1964)
*
Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft (born April 25, 1969) is an Italian-born American contemporary art, contemporary performance artist; she also works with photography, video art, sculpture, and painting. Many of her works have made use of professional models, so ...
(born 1969)
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Cosima von Bonin (born 1962)
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Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
(1911–2010)
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Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch (born 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada), is a Canadian artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists. Bulloch lives and works in Berlin.
Life and career
Bulloch stud ...
(born 1966)
*
Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle (; born 9 October 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Daughter of the contemporary art collector Robert Calle, Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constrai ...
(born 1953)
*
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
(born 1939)
*
Lygia Clark
Lygia Pimentel Lins (23 October 1920 – 25 April 1988), better known as Lygia Clark, was a Brazilian artist best known for her painting and Installation art, installation work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist moveme ...
(1920–1988)
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Hanne Darboven
Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers.
Early life and career
Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She ...
(1941–2009)
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Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay (; 14 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist born to Jewish parents, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine, and was formally trained in Russia and Germany, be ...
(1885–1979)
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Orshi Drozdik
Orshi Drozdik (born 1946 in Hungary) is a feminist visual artist based in New York City. Her work consists of drawings, paintings, photographs, etchings, performances, videos, sculptures, installations, academic writings and fiction, that explore ...
(born 1946)
*
Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African artist and painter based in the Netherlands.
Early life and education
Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Kuils River in the Western Cape, where her father ha ...
(born 1953)
*
Tracey Emin
Dame Tracey Karima Emin (; born 3 July 1963) is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, Neon lighting, neon text ...
(born 1963)
*
Hanna Eshel
Hanna Eshel (; September 5, 1926 - September 9, 2023) was a multi-disciplinary artist, known for her collage, oil painting and marble sculptures exploring elemental forms and themes of fractured space — a body of work, largely unnoticed un ...
(1926–2023)
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Valie Export
Valie Export (often stylized as 'VALIE EXPORT'; born 17 May 1940) is an avant-garde Austrian artist. She is best known for provocative public performances and expanded cinema work. Her artistic work also includes video installations, computer a ...
(born 1940)
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Sylvie Fleury (born 1961)
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Katharina Fritsch (born 1956)
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Ellen Gallagher
Ellen Gallagher (born December 16, 1965) is an American artist. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of many major museums. Her media include painting, works on paper, film and ...
(born 1965)
*
Isa Genzken
Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948) is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photograp ...
(born 1948)
*
Nan Goldin
Nancy Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the Bohemian style, bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing w ...
(born 1953)
*
Natalia Goncharova
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (, ; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Lariono ...
(1881–1962)
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Renée Green
Renée Green (born October 25, 1959) is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker. Her pluralistic practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, architecture, photography, prints, video, film, websites, and sound, which normally conv ...
(born 1959)
*
Asta Gröting (born 1961)
*
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of Feminist movements and ideologies, feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985, born out of a picket against the Museum of ...
(born 1985)
*
Roxana Halls
Roxana Halls (born 1974, UK) is a figurative painter known for her images of wayward women who refuse to conform to society’s expectations.She has been widely praised for her draughtsmanship, wry humour and what art critic Brian Sewell called � ...
(born 1974)
*
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum (; born 1952) is a Palestinians, British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London.
Biography
Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to State of Palestine, Palestinian parents. Although born in Leba ...
(born 1952)
*
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...
(1903–1975)
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Lynn Hershman (born 1941)
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Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...
(1936–1970)
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Susan Hiller
Susan Hiller (March 7, 1940–January 28, 2019) was a US-born, British conceptual artist who lived in London, United Kingdom. Her practice spanned a broad range of media, including installation, video, photography, painting, sculpture, per ...
(1940–2019)
*
Hannah Wilke
Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter; (March 7, 1940 – January 28, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist. Her work is known for exploring issues of feminism, sexuality and femininity.
Bio ...
(1940–1993)
*
Hannah Höch
Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar Republic, Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collag ...
(1889–1978)
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Candida Höfer
Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a renowned photographer known for her exploration of public spaces and architecture. In her career she transitioned from portraiture to focusing on spaces like libraries and m ...
(born 1944)
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Nancy Holt
Nancy Holt (April 5, 1938 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist most known for her public sculpture, installation art, concrete poetry, and land art. Throughout her career, Holt also produced works in other media, including film and photog ...
(1938–2014)
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Rebecca Horn
Rebecca Horn (24 March 1944 – 6 September 2024) was a German visual artist best known for her installation art, film directing and body modifications such as ''Einhorn'' (Unicorn), a body-suit with a very large horn projecting vertically from ...
(born 1944)
*
Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...
(1907–1954)
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Toba Khedoori (born 1964)
*
Karen Kilimnik (born 1955)
*
Sarah Maple (born 1985)
*
Dindga McCannon (born 1947)
*
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American ar ...
(1948–1985)
*
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat (; born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininit ...
(born 1957)
*
Orlan (born 1947)
*
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
(born 1933)
*
Carolee Schneeman (1939–2019)
*
Yayoi Kusama
is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and Installation art, installation, and she is also active in painting, performance art, performance, video art, Fashion design, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her wo ...
(born 1929)
*
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative ca ...
(born 1945)
*
Suzy Lake
Suzy Lake (born June 24, 1947) is an American-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, who is known for her work as a photographer, performance artist and video producer. Using a range of media, Lake explores topics including identity, beauty ...
(born 1947)
*
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projectio ...
(born 1950)
*
Cindy Sherman
Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Her breakthrough work is often co ...
(born 1957)
*
Kara Walker
Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores Race (classification of human beings), race, gender, human sexuality, sexual ...
(born 1969)
*
Adrian Piper
Adrian Margaret Smith Piper (born September 20, 1948) is an American conceptual artist and Kantian philosopher. Her work addresses how and why those involved in more than one discipline may experience professional ostracism, otherness, racial ...
(born 1948)
*
Amal Kenawy (1974–2012)
*
Andrea Fraser
Andrea Rose Fraser (born 1965) is a performance artist, mainly known for her work in the area of institutional critique. Fraser is based in New York and Los Angeles and is a professor and area head of the Interdisciplinary Studio of the UCLA Scho ...
(born 1965)
*
Coco Fusco
Coco Fusco (born Juliana Emilia Fusco Miyares; June 18, 1960) is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator whose work has been widely exhibited and published internationally. Fusco's work explores gender, identity, race, and ...
(born 1960)
*
Emily Jacir (born 1970)
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Larissa Sansour (born 1973)
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Laurie Simmons (born 1949)
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Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold (born Faith Willi Jones; October 8, 1930 – April 13, 2024) was an American painter, author, Sculpture, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, and Intersectionality, intersectional activist, perhaps best known for her Narrativ ...
(born 1930)
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Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...
(born 1953)
*
Mickalene Thomas
Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel. (born 1971)
*
Sherrie Levine
Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston.
Ea ...
(born 1947)
*
Mimi Smith
Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Smith (''née'' Stanley; 24 April 1906 – 6 December 1991) was a maternal aunt and the parental guardian of the English musician John Lennon. Mimi Stanley was born in Toxteth, Liverpool, England, the oldest of five dau ...
(born 1942)
*
Lia Garcia (born 1989)
Artist collectives
*
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of Feminist movements and ideologies, feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985, born out of a picket against the Museum of ...
(founded 1985)
*
Heresies Collective The Heresies Collective was founded in 1976 in New York City, by a group of feminist political artists. The group sought to examine art from a feminist and political perspective. In addition to a variety of actions and cultural output, the collectiv ...
*
iQhiya Collective
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Las Damas de Arte (founded 1971)
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Mujeres de Maiz
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Ni Santas (founded 2016)
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Ridykeulos collective (founded 2005)
*
Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot is a Feminism in Russia, Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by the th ...
*
Speaking of I.M.E.L.D.A.
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SOHO20
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Spiderwoman Theater (founded 1976)
See also
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Cyberfeminism
Cyberfeminism is a feminist approach which foregrounds the relationship between cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. It can be used to refer to a philosophy, art practices, methodologies or community. The term was coined in the early 1990s to ...
*
Feminism in 1950s Britain
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Feminist art
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 ...
*
Feminist art criticism
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Feminist art movement in the United States
The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art.
First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lac ...
*
Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
*
List of 20th century women artists
*
n.paradoxa
*
Postmodern feminism
Postmodern feminism is a branch of feminism that opposes a universal female subject. Drawing on postmodern philosophy, postmodern feminism questions traditional ideas about gender, identity, and power, while emphasizing the socially construct ...
*
Timeline of the feminist art movement in New Zealand
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Women artists
The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", e ...
*
Women's Art Movement, in Australia 1970s–1980s
References
Further reading
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Juan Vicente Aliaga
Juan Vicente Aliaga (born 1959) is a Spanish art critic who has written widely on contemporary conceptual art as well as on gender and queer theory. In his pioneer 1997 book ''Identidad y diferencia: sobre la cultura gay en España'', co-author ...
''Gender Battle/A Battala dos Xeneros'' Spain, Santiago de Compostela, 2007.
* Juan Aliaga and Maria Laura Rosa ''Recuperar la Memoria: Experiencias feministas desde el Arte, Argentina y Espana, Ana Navarette and Mujeres Publicas'' Centro Cultural de Espana, Buenos Aires and CCEBE, Sede Parana, 2013.
* L. Anderson, A. Livion Ingvarsson, M. Jensner, A. Nystrom, B.Werkmeister, N. Ostlind (eds.) ''Konstfeminism'' Helsingborg, Sweden, Dunkers Kulturhaus and Lilevalch Konsthall, 2004.
* Kathy Battista ''Re-Negotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s'' London, I B Tauris, 2011.
* Carla Bianpoen, Farah Wardani, Wulan Dirgantoro ''Indonesian Women Artists'' Jakarta: Yayasan Semirupa Indonesia:2007.
*
Katy Deepwell (ed) ''New Feminist Art Criticism: Critical Strategies'' UK, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1995.
* Sylvia Eiblmayr ''Die Frau als Bild: Der weibliche Körper in der Kunst des 20 Jahrhunderts'' Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1993.
* Isabelle Graw ''Die bessere Hälfte: Künstlerinnen des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts'' Cologne, du Mont Verlag, 2003.
* Uta Grosenick (ed.) "Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century" Köln: Taschen GmbH, 2001.
* Karen Hindsbo ''The Beginning is Always Today': Scandinavian feminist art from the last 20 years'' Norway: Saarlandets Kunstmuseum, 2013.
* Johanna Householder and
Tanya Mars (eds) ''Caught in the Act: an Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women'' Toronto:YYZ Books, 2003.
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Lucy Lippard
Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. ...
''From the Center:Feminist Essays on Women's Art'' New York. Dutton, 1976.
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Rozsika Parker
Rozsika Parker (27 December 1945 – 5 November 2010) was a British psychotherapist, art historian and writer and a feminist.
Biography
Parker was born in London and spent her early years in Oxford, studying at Wychwood School.
Between the y ...
and
Griselda Pollock
Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock (born 11 March 1949) is a British art historian, whose work focuses on analyzing visual arts and visual culture through global feminist and postcolonial feminist lenses. Since 1977, Pollock has been an influen ...
''Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement, 1970–1985'' London. Pandora/RKP, 1987.
* Bojana Pejic (ed) ''The Gender Check Reader'' Vienna, MUMOK and Erste Foundation, 2010
* Griselda Pollock (ed) ''Generations and Geographies'' London, Routledge, 1996.
* Helena Reckitt (ed) ''Art and Feminism'' London, Phaidon, 2001
*
Hilary Robinson (ed) ''Visibly Female'' London, Camden Press, 1987
* Hilary Robinson (ed) ''Feminism – Art – Theory: An Anthology, 1968–2000'' Oxford. Blackwells, 2001.
* Araceli Barbosa Sanchez ''Arte Feminista en los ochenta en Mexico: una perspectiva de genero'' Mexico: Casa Juan Pablos Centro Cultural, Universidad Autonoma de Estado de Morelos, 2008.
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Ella Shohat
Ella Habiba Shohat is a professor of cultural studies at New York University. She has written and lectured on the topics of Eurocentrism, orientalism, Postcolonialism, post-colonialism, Transnationalism, trans-nationalism, Diaspora, diasporic cult ...
(ed) ''Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT:1998
* Bridget Tracy Tan ''Women Artists in Singapore'' Singapore, Select Books and Singapore Art Museum, 2011.
* Jayne Wark ''Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art in North America'' Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.
* Women Down the Pub (a.k.a. N.Debois Buhl, L.Strombeck, A.Sonjasdotter) ''Udsight – Feministiske Strategier i Dansk Billedkunst / View – Feminist Strategies in Danish Visual Art'' Denmark, Informations Vorla, 2004.
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