Rewriting Art History: A Woman's World
This exhibit Rewriting Art History: A Woman’s World, is a show of four contemporary women artists who play with elements from modernist movements through a women’s lens. Much of art history is conceptualized through the rise and fall of various art periods, marked by distinct styles and concepts that represent those respective time periods both ideologically, politically, and subjectively through the eyes of those artists. From realism, to abstraction, to expressionism, these various art movements define the way we view art history and the views of the artists of those time periods. Unfortunately, all of these art periods were dominated by male artists. When we think of surrealism we think of Dali, Magritte, or Miró. When we think of abstraction we think of Kandinsky or Mondrian. When we think of impressionism we think of Van Gogh, Manet, or Cézanne. Much of women’s artwork made within the 19th and much of the 20th century will remain buried under the patriarchy and the male perspective. This exhibit highlights the work of four female contemporary artists who have taken inspiration from and reclaimed the stylistic conventions of various art movements through the female gaze. These pieces reference a range of art movements such as realism, surrealism, abstraction and readymades, yet are unified in that they all represent a woman's perspective. How would Duchamp’s urinal be different if it were gynecological tools? How would realist art be different had the women worn fishnets and animal prints? By utilizing interventions such as these, this work is representative of what happens when women bring their subjectivity and experiences to artistic styles that have always been thought of as masculine. This work challenges the conventions of prominent art movements within modernism, and prompts one to question how these movements would have been different had they been dominated by female artists rather than men.
Last Night My Tears Were Falling, I Went To Bed So Sad And Blue, Then I Had a Dream Of You - Ellina Kevorkian
(Medium: mixed media, Dimensions: 84 x 72 inches, Date: 2002)
Ellina Kevorkian is a multidisciplinary artist based in LA. Much of her work is multimedia utilizing hybrid art styles combining painting, photography, video, and performance. This piece, Last Night My Tears Were Falling, I Went to Bed so Sad and Blue, Then I Had a Dream of You, is an abstract piece reflecting a personal experience in an autobiographical fashion. Despite this piece being stylistically abstract, Kevorkian rejects the conventions of any particular art style. One way Kevorkian does this is by using abstract representation to portray a specific personal moment rather than universal or grand scheme concepts as most traditional abstract art does. This work reconsiders the conventions of abstraction and prompts one to think about how complex feelings and emotions can be materialized through hybridized abstract forms. Kevorkian is quoted saying that “in many ways right now, art has become entrenched in theory and academia and I’m really wishing for something more raw, abject, and expressive... Anything that makes it more relatable to the women I talk to regularly.” One way Kevorkian rejects academia and theory is by purposefully not contextualizing many of her pieces such as this one. Despite that, some themes can be drawn such as the theme of femininity and new beginnings with the use of butterflies, as butterflies signify new birth. This work represents feminist ideas about personal, autobiographical expression. This piece stylistically utilizes the methods of abstract art while rejecting certain conventions in order to retain an authentic women’s perspective.
Le Crunch- Jessie Makinson
(Medium: oil and pigment on canvas, Dimensions: 47.25 x 78.75 inches, Date: 2020)
Jessie Makinson is a London based artist whose work is a critique of historical paintings and their western patriarchal themes. As a citizen of the United Kingdom, much of her work thematically relates to the courtly values of royalty, hierarchy, and authority as well as how women are represented within such societal structures. Makinson aims for her work to be a vessel for untold stories, questions, and contradictions. The language of her pieces reference that of historical realist paintings, however the content is remarkably different. Makinson removes all men, dresses women in fishnets and animal prints and allows for the figures to hold their bodies in “unladylike” fashions. This allows for a contemporary reading of her work, that is critical of the male gaze perspective undertaken in most historical paintings. This work focuses on the gaze of the female figures in the painting, or rather, women reclaiming their agency in general, allowing themselves to dress and behave however they choose.
What Time Is It?- Alexandra Levassaur
(Medium: acrylic, oil, and pencil, Dimensions: 48 x 36 x 2 inches, Date: 2016)
Alexandra Levassaur is a surrealist painter whose work centers women as the subjects of all of her paintings. Her work is autobiographical, expressing her feelings and emotions grappling with one’s lifespan and the meaning behind our short existences on Earth. In her work, the female figure serves as a symbol for human emotion and its complexities. This piece, What Time Is It?, explores many of the same themes of modern surrealism surrounding time and space, however Levassaur also incorporates themes addressing identity and gender existentialism. This piece grapples with the relationship between women and nature, highlighting the sublime beauty of Mother Earth. The woman having flowers growing out of her head and being submerged in the water shows a oneness with nature. Her piece utilizes muted tones of blush pink and blue to express a peaceful feminine energy. This piece synthesizes the complexity of reality, time and space, with the human emotions and subjective experience that accompany such phenomena.
Head Gear- Zoe Buckman
(Medium: sculpture, Dimensions: variable, Date: 2017)
Zoe Buckman is a multimedia artist from London who currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. One may draw similarities between this piece and Duchamp’s Fountain. Although Buckman utilizes readymade material related to one’s bodily functions, the similarities end there. Buckman’s piece is a commentary on the way patriarchal authority violates our perception of femininity and the ways we deal with women’s bodies. This piece consists of a pile of gynecological tools painted white sitting on a pedestal. Her way of beautifying female medical objects is a critique of traditional femininity and the naturalized aggressions that women face every day. Her use of tough material like metal in a purified and emotionless fashion, forces one to consider how traditional art posits all things related to women as pure and beautiful, even when they so blatantly are not. Buckman aims to push the idea that women are both ferocious and feminine, and not only that they are that way, but that they must be.
Bibliography
“Alexandra Levasseur - Artist Profile.” WOW x WOW, 20 June 2017, https://wowxwow.com/artist-profile/alexandra-levasseur-ap.
“Ellina Kevorkian.” ELLINA KEVORKIAN, http://www.ellinakevorkian.com/.
“Exhibitions.” Zoe Buckman, 19 July 2021, https://www.zoebuckman.com/exhibitions/.
“Interview: Painter Jessie Makinson on Temper Tantrums & Setting the Scene.” Something Curated, 17 Apr. 2021, https://somethingcurated.com/2021/03/19/interview-painter-jessie-makinson-on-temper-tantrums-setting-the-scene/.
Kotok, Natalie. “Alexandra Levasseur: Feminine Mystery of Being One with Nature.” MINUS37.Com, 27 Aug. 2018, https://www.minus37.com/2018/08/28/human-nature-paintings-french-symbolism-alexandra-levasseur/.
Nafziger, Christina. “Interview: Alexandra Levasseur .” Create! Magazine, Create! Magazine, 29 June 2017, https://createmagazine.com/read/alexandra-levasseur.
Image List