Desiree Roman

Art and Women

11/28/17

5 Women Artists

            Art can be described as the expression on application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture. Art produces work that is appreciated primarily for beauty or emotional power. Art is important and widely recognized because art can have one specific meaning to someone but several other meanings to someone else. The way it is presented can evoke several different emotions towards the viewers. Art has various themes such as, gender, race, power, class, history, etc. Art is significant because the audience can see the different techniques the artists used to convey their themes. The 5 women artists that I have chosen are Marina Abramovic, Cindy Sherman, Vanessa Beecroft, Barbara Kruger, and Nan Goldin. They have also transformed the world of art through the themes of gender, race, power, the human body and class.

Marina Abramovic, Rhythm 0, 1974

Marina Abramovic, Rhythm 2, 1974

            Marina Abramovic was born in 1946 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her parents held high positions in the communist government. After her father had left, her mother took strict control of not only her, but her brother as well. Although her mother was strict and violent, she still supported Abramovic’s curiosity in art. Growing up, she took advantage of her body and her health. Abramovic, “took drugs instead to treat catatonia and schizophrenia; she invited viewers to threaten her body with a razor blade, whipped herself, and lay on a block of ice.” (Art history, 1). She has stated that her work was inspired by the political communist government and how vicious her mother was. Her work illustrates her to be rebellious, something that she wanted to convey because she wanted to show that she was not only rebellious to her family but also the power and structure of the art system where she lived. When she met Ulay, they became artistic collaborators and lovers. They performed many works together in which they showed how their love came to be. She has been highly influential for performance artists through her work that challenges the limits of the body. She focuses primarily on the human body and this is her theme. In some performance, she appears naked and hurts her body physically. In Rhythm 0, she allows the audience to interact with her body instead of just letting them watch. She continues to hurt her body physically to show that a person should be completely aware of his/her own self. This allowed her to expand her performance art, because it involved the audience and performer (her). Majority of her performance art involved pain with her body. With Ulay, she depicted the love that they shared, but also the power between both genders. She is a performance artist who explores the relationship between, “performer and the audience, limitations of the body and the vast possibilities of the mind.” (Wide walls, 1). She is considered the pioneer of performance art.

Marina Abramovic, Relation in Time, 1977

            










Marina Abramovic, Thomas Lips, 1975



Marina Abramovic, Imponderabilia, 1977 






                  
           

Cindy Sherman was born on January 19, 1954 in New Jersey. Although her family had lacked interest in the art field, she was fascinated by it. In her early life, she studied at Buffalo where she began as a painter. This changed because she grew frustrated with the limitations of the medium. She grew unsatisfied at how painting was limited and how nothing could really be said through it anymore. Therefore, Sherman became a photographer and her theme involved how women were sexualized. She uses the camera and various tools that, “signify various concepts of public celebrity, self-confidence, sexual adventure, entertainment, and other existential conditions. There images suggest how self-identity is often an unstable compromise between social dictates and personal intentions.” (Art history, 1). She uses her photography to challenge the role of women in modern society. Her work incorporates various influences of feminism, performance art, as well as cultural criticism, and the body and identity politics. In her portraits, she challenges the viewers gaze. In Untitled Film Still #13, displays a young girl coming of age. She understands the "true womanhood" and the transition from a young teenage girl to an adult.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2004

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #13, 1978

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #21, 1978

             Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian contemporary female artist. She is recognized though her performance art where she addresses conceptual concerns. Her work involves nude female models suggesting that she doesn’t care about labels. When she does a performance her work reflects, the political, historical, or social association of the place where it is held.” (Wide walls, 1). She provokes the relationship between the viewers gaze with the model and its context. She is a very different artist who doesn’t necessarily view herself as white, even though she is. This is evident when she states, “when I work with African-Americans, I feel that I am autobiographical. If I don’t call myself white, maybe I am not.” (Cut, 1). She views herself as Kanye, a black man even though she is far from that. Beecroft doesn’t view herself as white, she wants to be apart of a different race. She doesn’t want her work to consist of labels, therefore she considers herself to have divided personalities. She uses the theme of nudity and race to challenge labels.

Vanessa Beecroft, Miami Art Basel Performance, 2013

           Barbara Kruger is an American Designer, Graphic Artist, and Photographer. She creates photographs that deal with power, identity, and sexuality. She uses the issues of language and signs to explore the ideas of gender and identity. With her work of graphic design, “she aims to sell an idea to the viewer that is meant to instigate a reconsideration of one’s immediate context.” (art history, 1). She wants to connect with the viewer in a sense that she critiques the society they live in. She wants them to explore their gender and culture which is why through her graphic design she uses unexpected phrases. She also uses the colors that represent violence, to attract the viewers attention. She uses these bold colors so that the viewer can focus on the language that is being expressed.  She takes media images and changes it to black and white and imposes language. In Your Body Is A Battleground, her subject is starring at the gaze of the viewer to address them with her glare and the words across her face. This was made to address the continuation of feminist struggles. She uses Post-Modernism to connect to the social and cultural responses during that period.

Barbara Kruger, Installation view of self-titled solo exhibition at Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, 1991

Barbara Kruger, It's All About Me, I Mean You, I Mean Me, 2010

Barbara Kruger ,Your Body Is A Battle Ground, 1989 

          Nan Goldin is a contemporary artist from New York that focuses on photography.  She is widely astonished by sexuality and gender in which her photographs reflect it. She uses the themes of drugs, sex, and violence to deliver a message. In her most famous series of photographs titled, “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”, “depicts drug use, violent couples, as well as autobiographical moments.” (Wide walls, 1). She is hooked on the idea of sexuality and violence. In her photobook, Nan Goldin: I’ll be your Mirror, she captures her friend’s vulnerable moments. Her photography has no limits. She incorporates a lot of LGBT themes also in her work.
 
                                                                            

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1980-1986

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1980-1986

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1980-1986

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1980-1986

              All 5 of these artists incorporate different themes in their work. They are important contemporary women artists.

 

 

“Nan Goldin.” Nan Goldin | Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/nan-goldin/.

“Barbara Kruger Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm.
Larocca, Amy. “For Kanye Collaborator Vanessa Beecroft, People Are the Perfect Palette.” The Cut, 9 Aug. 2016, www.thecut.com/2016/08/vanessa-beecroft-bodies-artist.html.
"Cindy Sherman Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm.
“Marina Abramović Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-abramovic-marina.htm#biography_header
“Nan Goldin - From Skylines and Landscapes to Themes of Drugs, Sex and Violence.” Widewalls, www.widewalls.ch/10-women-in-contemporary-art/nan-goldin/.