Feminism

Feminism Late 1960s / Early 1970s - Present

media type="flickr" key="13386699@N00" ARG0="&tags=feminism&lang=en-us&format=rss_200" width="500" height="500" Feminism: The movement that challenged one of the major unspoken conventions of the history of Western art including Modern art - a.k.a the dominance of men. The major aim of feminist artists was to accomplish an increased recognition in the accomplishment of the female figure in the course of history. They attacked the traditional Western hierarchy that placed arts at the highest level of achievement. Feminism was simply to show the world that men did not have as much control over women as they may have believed, and the only way that feminists thought they could get across a message was to create art expressing how they felt.

Attacking Stereotypes: As the critics scanned for contemporary women who were creating with insuffcient recognition; they discovered a wealth of neglected talent. In this attack towards the racial and sexual discriminations in society, the artwork **Aunt Jemima** - Betye Sarr - was created to appropriate the derogatory stereotype of the cheerfully servile "mammy" and transforms it into an icon of militant black feminist power. Aunt Jemima is a symbol of Black Power signaling African Americans' willingness to use force to achieve their aims.

Identification in Nature: A multiple number of feminists celebrated the notion that women have a deeper identification with nature than do men. Many works representing feminism were seen in nature such as **Untitled Work From The Tree of Life Series** - Ana Mendieta. In this work, she stands covered with mud, her arms upraised like a prehistoric goddess, appearing at one with nature, her "materal source." She is attempting to make herself one with nature and the tree, yet protude so that she is seen by the viewer in order to show that she is not one entity with the tree.