Five 20th Century Women Artists

Since the beginning of time in art there have always been excellent women artists even if they were not recognized in early times. It's difficult to choose which women artists stand out the most, but it was narrowed down to 20th century artists for me. Seeing some work by Dorothea Lange in "In Her Eyes: Women Behind and in Front of the Camera" Exhibition in Newark museum,  and works in class by Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo, and Mary Cassat made me interested in this time period. These women were revolutionizing art for women by opening doors for other women painters. They were doing the same work as a "man's work" but expressing their oppositions against the stereotypical roles of women . Women's bodies and their nudity was no longer the only focus in paintings when these women started coming into the art world. 

A very famous painter of the 20th century was Frida Kahlo  who was born in Coyoacán, Mexico City in 1907. She was of German and Spanish decent but chose not to focus as much on her European side of her. At the young age of eighteen, she got into a horrible car accident which ended up leaving her handicapped. She immediately turned this situation into something positive and started to paint. Instead of letting this come in her way, she used this to fuel her desire for art and fulfill her ambitions. In one work of art called, "Without Hope", painted in 1945 by Kahlo, we see a part of her life struggle. She is laying in bed and being forced fed. Because in real life she had a special diet due to her accident which most people did not need. She wanted to emphasize the tough times she had to go through and portray a different subject than a man probably would. Her arms are pinned down, giving the sense that she has no control, no power, and no hope as the title says. 

                                                                 Without Hope, 1945

Another famous woman of that time was Mary Cassat, born in 1844 in the U.S. Cassatt frequently made images that reflected the private lives of women which no one was bold enough to show yet. She also commonly had an emphasis on the special bond between mothers and children and put those in her work.  It was a known fact that Mary Cassat had obtained all her artistic abilities from her mother, Katherine Cassat. She was also exposed to a lot of art when she was in France where she stayed for a majority of her life. A very famous painting of hers which has her mother-child relationship shown is "Breakfast in Bed". Painted in 1897, Cassatt shows a very calm but moving scene in which a mother is embracing her daughter who is obviously intrigued by something else elsewhere. The contrast she shows with the mother's protective gaze and hug with her daughter's curiosity with whatever else is out there shows the subtle tensions between the mother daughter relationship and focuses on the nature of women rather than their bodies. 

                                                               Breakfast in Bed, 1897

           

Dorothea Lange was a very notable female artist from Hoboken, New Jersey. She was always quite successful, beginning with her education at Columbia University to opening her own portrait studio in San Francisco. Instead of painting and using a paintbrush, Lange used her camera. She took her camera to the real world when the Great Depression hit the U.S. She took a picture of the very famous "Migrant Mother" in 1936. It is one of many of series of pictures of Florence Owens Thompson and her kids during the depression. The photograph shows so much misery of the poor women who is only 32 but looks so much older due to stress. Lange greatly captured the struggles of women and showed they have to deal with so many more issues than just looks. Lange highly influenced the creation of a concept called "Documentary photography". She took several pictures in chronological order to show a series of events just through the pictures. 

                                                                Migrant Mother, 1936 

A well-known French artist in this time also was Louise Bourgeois born in 1911 and died recently in 2010. Her best known style was modern and contemporary and she was also known for being the founder of confessional art. The most celebrated sculpture by her was the "Maman" which depicts a giant spider (30 feet high and 33 feet wide). The spider was an ode to her mother because like spiders, her mother was a weaver as well. Also she was a clever and protective figure to her. She explained that spiders ate mosquitoes to protect us from disease as her mother used to protect her. Her odd way of representing her mom is unique since most people consider spiders vicious, ugly creatures.

Maman, 1999

One last woman artist of the 20th century is Georgia O'Keeffe, born in 1887. She often displayed emotion and power of objects that exist in nature. Several of her paintings include bones, flowers, and landscapes around New York and New Mexico. Her paintings also appeared as if one was looking through a magnifying glass and it was an enlarged photo. In this video we can see O'Keeffe discussing her work and her perspective on her own work. All of these women artists from the 20th century clearly show different topics they focus on and how they see art as opposed from the male point of view. 

Works Cited:
"Louise Bourgeois. Maman: From the Outside In." Art & Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/louise-bourgeois-maman-from-the-outside-in/>.
"Georgia O'Keeffe Biography." Georgia O'Keeffe Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/okee-geo.htm>.
"Frida Kahlo." - Paintings, Biography, and Quotes of. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.fridakahlo.org/>.
"Cassatt, Mary." WebMuseum:. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cassatt/>.