Viewing Art

 The feminist way of addressing art became a new way of viewing art. “It's new way of looking at the art establishment gave women the confidence to express their feelings and state their demands. Women artists wanted success and recognition, as they had always done, but this time they were willing to shout for it...” (Borzello, 195). There were also other critics that weren't sure that the new feminist art movement was worth fighting for or legitimately an issue. "In debunking the myth of the Great (male) Artist, the women’s movement hatched myths of its own. Art was hailed as one of those things that women do naturally, like lactating or menstruating. Instinct is art; we are the earth" (Mullarky, 3). Back in the 1970's, many women started to protest the way the art world looked at art. They fought for equalization and no more discrimination or the exclusion from male-dominated exhibitions and institutions. Women, such as Judy Chicago, also began creating artwork that was centered around the female body. She began replicating forms, shapes, lines and colors that resembled a woman's breasts, stomach, vagina, and anything else that brought out the strong subject matter of femininity. This began a movement created within the art community, specifically with women artists to stand for their gender and replicate the female form through any way possible in their work.

While women typically stuck to making art forms through paintings or sculptures, after the 1980's, a new art form was introduced: performance and video. This became the major focus in the art world and was a new outlet for women to base their ideas upon. Women started to find it easier to express oneself and performance and video started to dominate. Female artist Pipilotti Rist was well known for her videos. She featured a video performance in 1986 titled, “I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJgiSyCr6BY&feature=related

In the video she continuously sings the same line over and over again as she dances around. The screen is blurred and her voice is distorted. Rist's technique of editing and video production became her style for all of her work and she became one of the few women who opened the art world to a new medium while other women artists were bringing forth humor and irony to their work.

No matter how large the number of women in art becomes, I doubt our popularity will increase anytime soon; it hasn't for centuries. Despite this fact though, women will continue to introduce new techniques and new forms of expression that maybe a male would not have thought of, and continue to fly under the radar. What will it take for women to become the new sensation in art? The new driving force, a storm that's taken over? Like the Guerrilla Girls who constantly stand for equality, we can only hope we will no longer be overshadowed by men.