Art Emphazises Feminism (Feminist ART)

Online, July 31, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The feminist art movement is the effort and accomplishment of women to focus on art that reflects on their lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for production and reception of contemporary art. It has also sought to bring more visibility to women within art history and practice. The Feminist Art Movement began with the idea that women's experiences can be expressed in art form where they had been previously ignored or trivialized. Although the feminist art movement began in the United States, Germany and Britain, it spread rapidly to other countries too.

Feminists have noted that historically, male artists have portrayed a patriarchal social system in art. In other words, most art depicts father-centered figures that dominate females. Feminist art notes that the predominance of art made by and for males is significant in man-dominated culture and heritage, even to the extent of denigrating females. Male artists often maintain art studios that exclude women from training and practicing as artists and a gallery system that has kept women from exhibiting and selling their works. Up until recently museums have hardly exhibited works of female artists.

The Feminist art movement emerged in the late 1960s. Feminist artists sought to change the world around them through their art, focusing on intervening in the established art world, the art historical canon, as well as everyday social interactions. As artist Suzanne Lacy declared, the goal of Feminist art was to "influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes." There is no singular medium or style that unites Feminist artists, as they often combined aspects from various movements and media, including Conceptual art, Body art, and Video art into works that presented a message about women's experience and the need for gender equality.

Feminist artists sought to create a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork through the perspective of a woman. Art was not merely an object for aesthetic admiration, but could also incite the viewer to question the social and political landscape, and through this questioning, possibly affect the world and incite change toward equality. Feminist artists created alternative venues as well as worked to change established institutions' policies to promote women artists' visibility within the art world.