In this book, contributors identify and explore a range of iconic works - "Mistress-Pieces" - that have been made by feminists and gender activists since the 1970s. The first volume for which the defining of iconic feminist art is the raison d'être, its contributors interpret a "Mistress-Piece" as a work that has proved influential in a particular context because of its distinctiveness and relevance.

Reinterpreting iconic art by Alice Neel, Hannah Wilke and Ana Mendieta, the authors also offer important insights about works that may be less well known - those by Natalia LL, Tanja Ostojic, Swoon, Clara Menéres, Diane Victor, Usha Seejarim, Ilse Fusková, Phaptawan Suwannakudt and Tracey Moffatt, among others. While in some instances revealing cross influences between artists working in different frameworks, the publication simultaneously makes evident how social and political factors specific to particular countries had significant impact on the making and reception of art focused on gender.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual studies and gender studies.

Autorentext

Brenda Schmahmann is Professor and the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Inhalt

Introduction

Brenda Schmahmann

Part I: Reconfiguring Domestic Life

1. The Aesthetic Labour of Protest, Now and Then: The Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common (1981-2000)

Alexandra Kokoli

2. "Middle fingers up, put them hands high": Rethinking Tracey Moffatt's Scarred for Life (1994)

Jacqueline Millner and Catriona Moore

3. Bodies, Borders, and Law: Tanja Ostojic's Looking for a Husband with EU Passport (2000-05)

Hilary Robinson

4. Household Matters: Usha Seejarim's Venus at Home (2012) and the Politics of Women's Work

Brenda Schmahmann

Part II: Critiquing Gender Violence and Abuse

5. Hannah Wilke's S.O.S. Starification Object Series (1974-82) in the Era of #MeToo

Marissa Vigneault

6. Private Trauma, Public Healing: Hannan Abu Hussein's The Vagina Series (begun 2002)

Tal Dekel

7. Transgressive Martyrs in Diane Victor's Wise and Foolish Virgins (2008)

Karen von Veh

8. Swoon's Medea (2017) as a Feminist Intervention: Re-producing the Maternal

Paula J. Birnbaum

Part III: Great Goddess Iconographies

9. Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series (1973-80): In and Out of Feminism

Sherry Buckberrough

10. Clara Menéres' Woman-Earth-Life (1977) and the Politics of Censorship, Concealment and Vandalism

Laura Castro

11. The Female Body and Spirituality in Ilse Fusková's El Zapallo (1982) Series

María Laura Rosa

Part IV: Body Politics

12. Who is Afraid of Natalia LL? Consumer Art (1972-75) and the Pleasures and Dangers of Feminist Art in Communist Poland

Joanna Inglot

13. An Icon for the Aged: Alice Neel's Self-Portrait (1980)

Pamela Allara

14. Phaptawan Suwannakudt's Akojorn (1995): Connecting Women

Yvonne Low

15. Into the grave and back: Psychosomatic passage through grief in Lindi Arbi's Unearthed (2009)

Irene Bronner