See Us Now: The Feminist Positions of Helen Frankenthaler and Grace Hartigan, 1957–1962
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 83; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00233609.2013.860914
ISSN1651-2294
Autores Tópico(s)Fashion and Cultural Textiles
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementsI am grateful to Kalliopi Minioudaki for inviting me to contribute to this important volume, and for her insightful comments on earlier drafts. Linda Nochlin and Catharine R. Stimpson have generously provided endless guidance and inspiration over the years.SummaryThis paper mines archival correspondence, journals, and unpublished writings to reveal the antisexist content of a group of abstract and symbolic paintings by Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) and Grace Hartigan (1922–2008). Because the universalistic language of Abstract Expressionist painting and criticism failed to deliver its claims of unifying individual subjectivity and esthetics, Frankenthaler and Hartigan turned to fiction, poetry, and memoir by Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, H.D., Barbara Guest, and Berthe Morisot as sources of a critical language to address questions about women and art which were largely absent in contemporary discourse. Frankenthaler and Hartigan maintained a close and supportive friendship in the 1950s and early 1960s. Together, they developed new types of critical art that exposed the double standards in formalist and literary discussions of myth and visual style. Their works and ideas anticipated how American feminists later confronted institutionalized critical antipathy toward craft, the feminine, and the decorative.
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