Gendered: Art and Feminist Theory

Tal Dekel

Aug 2014 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

Feminist art and theoretical aspects of feminism are linked via a unique and reciprocal bond whose influence extends far beyond their own bounds into the social, cultural, political and economic realms, as well as into the personal lives of women and men alike. This linkage was forged in different places around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. It was especially influential in the United States, during a decade which witnessed the emergence and growth of the Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights, LGBT, and hippie movements and the protest against the Vietnam War. In response to these events, large numbers of women artists joined the ranks of contemporary political-feminist activists, their art directly reflecting the concerns of feminist theory and practice.

This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach through which it compares American feminist art and artists with their European counterparts. In order to elucidate the geographical divide, this book takes as a test case the work of Mary Kelly who, while born in the USA, produced much of her work while living in Britain and under the influence of European thought.

Challenging traditional disciplinary boundaries, it moves beyond an art-history survey to discuss the artistic field in relation to feminist theory and politics, revealing the continuing relevance of both areas for the contemporary reader. While concentrating upon the second wave of feminism in Europe and the USA, it also addresses aspects of the third wave and the current state of the feminist movement, particularly in respect to the Israeli art scene.

About the author

Tal Dekel lectures in the Department of Art History and in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She specializes in modern and contemporary art and visual culture, taking a particular interest in art and gender, multiculturalism and transnationalism. Her most recent work focuses on globalization and its manifestations in Israeli society and artists within two minority groups in Israel – the Ethiopian community and migrant women workers.