FEMINISM AND ART

I read the round-table discussion on feminism last Sunday (“Push-Pull of Feminist Art,” by Suzanne Muchnic) wondering, where’s this issue centered these days?

The concerns seemed to be: Was all work made by “women” artists informed by feminism, whether intentional or not? Were younger women dangerously unimpressed by the need for continued vigilance? Why do some women reject the label of “feminist”?

I see the issues differently. In the art world, is there discrimination against women and others? Yes, particularly at the top level of the pyramid. But I doubt that the goal is simply to keep women out. Rather, what is driving the engine in fine art today, just as it does on a greater scale in Hollywood, is money. Women are simply not deemed “investment grade.” Thus decisions by magazine editors, collectors and curators are too often not based on issues of quality.

I have a daughter and my plan for her is simple. When she comes to me and days, “Mom, this isn’t fair!” I say, “No, it isn’t. Now let’s get back to work.”

KARLA KLARIN

Santa Monica

*

My first taste of “feminist art” was in male-dominated Staten Island, N.Y. As one of the few people in the gallery to see Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party,” I was fortunate to be with my gay, ultra-feminist older sister. I would otherwise have missed the message.

I make art, I’m 35 and a single mother, often mistaken as “feminist” for choosing my life rather than just accepting it. It pains me that “feminist artists” think that to be an artist I need to “feel” the suffering my predecessors did.

Although Judy Fiskin may doubt this, my high school art teacher was a woman. Discrimination was never apparent to me, with artists like Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger gracing the walls of SoHo galleries. Let our daughters feel the jubilation of uninhibited, talented and creative women, rather than sour their ambitions with the pain of Muchnic’s four panelists. As Fiskin says, our experiences as women will be somewhere in our work anyway.

MIRIAM GARBER

Torrance

*

The failure of the feminist art movement to establish an aesthetic orthodoxy must be counted as its great success. No one is entitled to critical respect when the appeal to that respect is based on work in an officially established style--even when that style is the codified invitation to a higher moral ground.

Feminism is a way of thinking, not a look. It’s a shame that there are still “feminist theme” shows. People who self-segregate also self-marginalize (I learned that from my own feminist teachers). True, the statistics regarding the number of women in curated exhibitions are appalling. That alone should be enough to include our male colleagues in the dialogue.

As to the future of the feminist movement, I would advise young artists not to participate in shows that are gender exclusive, no matter what your gender. That’s the best way to acknowledge the contribution of all those women who worked the doors open.

SUZANNE CAPORAEL

Lompoc