Women Artists on the Leading Edge

Visual Arts at Douglass College

Joan M. Marter (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

192 Seiten

2019
Rutgers University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8135-9334-0 (ISBN)

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Explores the achievements of a group of young women artists who learned about the New Art through an extraordinary faculty of innovators at Douglass College. New Art rejected the dominance of Abstract Expressionism, advocating that art should be based on everyday life and that “anything can be art”.

How do students develop a personal style from their instruction in a visual arts program? Women Artists on the Leading Edge explores this question as it describes the emergence of an important group of young women artists from an innovative post-war visual arts program at Douglass College.

The women who studied with avant-garde artists at Douglas were among the first students in the nation to be introduced to performance art, conceptual art, Fluxus, and Pop Art. These young artists were among the first to experience new approaches to artmaking that rejected the predominant style of the 1950s: Abstract Expressionism. The New Art espoused by faculty including Robert Watts, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Geoffrey Hendricks, and others advocated that art should be based on everyday life. The phrase "anything can be art" was frequently repeated in the creation of Happenings, multi-media installations, and video art. Experimental approaches to methods of creation using a remarkable range of materials were investigated by these young women. Interdisciplinary aspects of the Douglass curriculum became the basis for performances, videos, photography, and constructions. Sculpture was created using new technologies and industrial materials. The Douglass women artists included in this book were among the first to implement the message and direction of their instructors.

Ultimately, the artistic careers of these young women have reflected the successful interaction of students with a cutting-edge faculty. From this BA and MFA program in the Visual Arts emerged women such as Alice Aycock. Rita Myers, Joan Snyder, Mimi Smith, and Jackie Winsor, who went on to become lifelong innovators. Camaraderie was important among the Douglass art students, and many continue to be instructors within a close circle of associates from their college years. Even before the inception of the women's art movement of the 1970s, these women students were encouraged to pursue professional careers, and to remain independent in their approach to making art. The message of the New Art was to relate one's art production to life itself and to personal experiences. From these directions emerged a "proto-feminist" art of great originality identified with women's issues. The legacy of these artists can be found in radical changes in art instruction since the 1950s, the promotion of non-hierarchical approaches to media, and acceptance of conceptual art as a viable art form.

JOAN M. MARTER is Editor-in-Chief of Woman's Art Journal since 2006. She is the author of numerous books, exhibition catalogues and articles. Titles include Women of Abstract Expressionism (Yale 2017) and Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957-63 (Rutgers 1999). Dr. Marter is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Rutgers, where she taught Art History for 38 years.

Introduction

Part 1
Visual Arts Faculty at Douglas College
Interview with Geoffrey Hendricks
Interview with Roy Lichtenstein

Part 2
Alice Aycock
Loretta Dunkelman
Kirsten Kraa
Frances Tannenbaum Kuehn
Linda Lindroth
Marion Munk
Rita Myers
Mimi Smith
Joan Snyder
Ann Tsubota
Jackie Winsor
Interview with Alice Aycock
Interview with Letty Lou Eisenhauer
Interview with Mimi Smith

Part 3
The Women Artists Series at Douglass College
Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series at 21 Years
Exhibitions at the Walters Hall Art Gallery, Douglass College
Conclusion
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	31.10.2019
Zusatzinfo	81 color photographs
Verlagsort	New Brunswick NJ
Sprache	englisch
Maße	229 x 305 mm
Gewicht	943 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Malerei / Plastik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-8135-9334-4 / 0813593344
ISBN-13	978-0-8135-9334-0 / 9780813593340
Zustand	Neuware