This module opens with a perusal of Modernist representation of the female body. We then examine gender, race, and Modernism thoughout the 20th century. Our studies of women artists focus on photographers living and working during these tumultuous years.
By end of this week, you should able to
This site covers collage of the modern period. Women artists featured are Hannah Höch, Deborah Withey, and Amber Zavada.
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939
Frida Kahlo was married to Diego Rivera (Mexican Muralist). She is often discussed as surreal as she explores herself in her many autobiographical images filled with symbolic meaning. Her life was filled with health problems and stormy relationships. She also was deeply committed to her Mexican heritage as seen in her clothing.
During the 20’s Georgia O'Keeffe lived in New York and married Alfred Stieglitz. She always believed, "You have to live in today." She had a fascination with the fast pace of city life and many of her works move toward formal abstraction.
Georgia O'Keeffe, New York, Night, 1929
New York, Night depicts soaring skyscrapers and moving lights. Reminiscent of the Percisionist movement and the aesthetics of Whistler, the painting demonstrates her strong desire toward design on a two dimensional plane.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Place II, 1944
Later moving away from the city in search of more contemplative space, she moved to the Southwestern United States and began focusing on a more formal abstraction based on floral motifs and other still-life objects. She reduced subjects in their purist forms focusing on color, shape, texture and rhythm for a gracefully poetic vision.
, Louise Nevelson, Helen Frankenthaler, Niki de Saint Phalle, Betye Saar, and Faith Ringgold