Women in the Arts #4

The following blog post is the fourth in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism.

FAST FACTS: We're talking about ‪#‎5WomenArtists‬ in celebration of Women's History Month! We've learned about three fantastic women so far, and now we get to chat about ADRIAN PIPER!!!

It is 1981, and we're at a little school in Cambridge, Mass. Maybe it is snowing. I don't know. Adrian Piper is getting her PhD from Harvard, and -- you guys. It's just. Adrian Piper is one accomplished gal, and it will take a lot of time to list every single badass thing she has done. We could talk about her MANY degrees (School of Visual Arts, A.A. Visual Arts; CUNY, B.A. in Philosophy; Harvard, M.A. and PhD, Philosophy -- not to mention her time studying Kant in Berlin for three years). We could talk about her fellowships (National Endowment -- twice -- AND Guggenheim? Damn, Piper BACK at it again with the fellowships). We could talk about her faculty positions at Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, and Wellesley (among others) or how when she was put on the "Suspicious Travelers," list whilst working in Berlin, Piper said, "Fuck that," and just never returned to America. As if you could just DO that.

It should be pretty clear that Adrian Piper is a "Don't take 'No,' for an answer," kind of person, and has worked incredibly hard to be where she is today (Berlin. Remember, from before?). Her art practice is conceptual, and her body of work ranges from traditional painting, to prints, drawings, sculpture, photomanipulation and documentation, as well as performance art (among others. I KNOW.) Her work is reflective of both her intellectual pursuits (Kantian metaethics) and whip-smart personality. She is unafraid to confront issues such as race, gender, class, and "otherness," and Peggy Phalen has said that her work shows "the ways in which racism and sexism are intertwined pathologies which have distorted our lives." Piper herself calls this kind of confrontation "therapeutic and catalytic." Rock on, Adrian.

Some of Piper's more well-known works include "Mythic Being," (1972) where she donned an afro wig, a mustache, and a distinctly male-gait, with which she sauntered around New York City, negotiating a male/female space, exploring blackness and the black male figure in among the crowds. She also produced a series of Calling Cards -- one of which I've uploaded here as the thumbnail to this post ("My Calling (Card) #1" (1986-1990)) -- to ostensibly pass out to friends or strangers, and call them out for their problematic behavior in a clinical and premeditated way. Piper continues to practice today, and she took home the Golden Lion Award for Best Artist at the 56th Venice Biennale last year. Her work continues to be shows at museums internationally. Nice, you guys. Nice.

Check out her meticulously put together website here:http://www.adrianpiper.com/

In addition to Adrian Piper, we've talked about gender inequality in the arts, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Zubeida Agha and Yayoi Kusama. You can check out those posts on my page, or give 'em a Google!

Women in the Arts #3

The following blog post is the third in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism.

HI GUYS WE'RE ON A ROLL! We're talking about ‪#‎5WomenArtists‬ in celebration of Women's History Month, leading up to International Women's Day on the 8th! Hey wow neat. Check out my first post about gender inequality in the arts and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the following one on Zubeida Agha. They're on my page. Go read them.

Yesterday we were in Pakistan in 1947, and today we are in NEW YORK and it is 1958! You are hanging with Yayoi Kusama, 27, who has just moved from Japan to make it big in America. Already an established artist in Japan, Kusama grew tired of the same old same old kimono and cherry blossoms watercolour scene that she felt Japan had to offer, and quickly struck up friendships with Georgia O'Keefe, Donald Judd, and Eva Hesse in their hip af studio which THEY ALL SHARED. Dang.

Ever since Kusama was a child, she was plagued with some pretty intense hallucinations. To her, these hallucinations were reminiscent of a never ending series of polka dots, and these polka dots (which she called "infinity nets") quickly became a signature of her very large body of conceptual art. If you've ever seen a room totally fucking wrekt with polka dot stickers & somebody called it art, you can bet that our homegirl Kusama was behind it. Not to be confined to simply one style or signature, however, Kusama also continued to pursue painting, as well as sculpture, and performance art.

In 1967, Kusama performed a fairly notorious piece of performance art at the 33rd Venice Biennale, where she, dressed in a golden kimono, attempted to sell off her sculpture, piece by piece, to passers-by. The biennale organisers were Not Having It, and quickly shut her down. Et tu, The Man?

In 1973, Kusama packed up shop and headed back for Japan. She felt that her mental health had taken a turn for the worse, and so voluntarily checked herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill, where she still lives today. She is still practicing art at the age of 87, and has been recognised internationally as a defining artist of her generation. She has teamed up with major fashion designers of all sorts, and major retrospectives of her work have been shown at the Tate, The MoMA, and the Whitney. In 2008, Christie's sold one of her works for $5.1 million, the then-record for any female artist (oh, and for comparison, the highest selling piece of art of all time is a Picasso at $179 million. that gender gap, huh?). Make her a household name.

The piece I've uploaded with this post as its thumbnail is "I pray with all of my love for tulips." (2012). Also, below, check out Kusama's DRESS SENSE, y'all.

Check out some more of her work here: http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/31-yayoi-kusama/

Women in the Arts #2

The following blog post is the second in a series of Facebook posts I wrote for Women's History Month, and to follow along with the hashtag #5WomenArtists, started by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. These posts were written to be an accessible, informative, and humorous way to encourage friends of mine to engage with art history and feminism. 

HI EVERYONE. Me again. Guess what? In celebration of Women's History Month and ‪#‎5WomenArtists‬, we're going to talk about women in the arts! Hey wow cool. You may have seen my post yesterday about gender inequality in the arts, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Today we are talking about Zubeida Agha!

If yesterday it was 1915ish and we were in Zurich, today it is 1949, and we are in the newly-created Pakistan! The weather is probably warm, and Agha has just closed the first museum show of any artist in the new country. Dang, fam. Strutting around with a degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Kinnaird College in Lahore, Agha decided that being a highly educated woman in mid-century Pakistan was not badass enough, and went on to study art at the Lahore School of Fine Art, the then-St Martin's School in London in 1950, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris in 1951 because she was worldly af. During this time she studied the old masters alongside contemporaries, such as (and in particular) Picasso. Upon her return to Pakistan, she settled in Karachi and founded the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Islamabad, becoming a patron in her own right to other Pakistani artists alongside continuing her own practice.

Agha's work is abstract, and there's a bold use of colour and focus on two-dimensional forms, with a clearly fauvist inspiration (think Picasso and Matisse, especially). Check out some more of her work here: http://www.vaslart.org/…/pak_masters/zubeida-agha/index.html

Zubeida Agha continued to practice up until her death in 1993, and in 2006, Pakistan honoured her by featuring her image on a series of commemorative postage stamps, alongside nine other Pakistani artists. what a rad gal.

the piece I've tacked on as the thumbnail to this post is "Urban Landscape," 1982. and as an added bonus, look at her in this photo chuckling patronizingly (we can only hope) to the two men she is with. look at her hair. that outfit. girl.