Creative Women of Art History

I am Marissa Rivers, a fellow creative! This blog is for my MMCC2100 class at the University of Florida. I hope readers will learn more about the women of the art world through this blog. Enjoy!

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Telling stories of creative women

I chose to blog about women artists because men dominate art nonfiction and textbooks. A few weeks ago, I was reading a book called Secret Lives of Great Artists by Elisabeth Lunday. While the book was hilarious and a great read, I noticed something while looking over its table of contents.

This book was 282 pages long and covered the crazy lives of 36 artists. Of those pages, 15 pages covered two women artists. The women who made the cut were Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe. These women were beautiful artists and definitely deserved a spot, but what about Mary Cassatt? Or Helen Frankenthaler? Barbara Kruger and Yayoi Kusama?

These types of books would have the public believe art is a man’s dominated field. When women are talked about in books, they are muses and models to their much more “successful” counterparts.

When women are not being referred to in the context of male artists, they are reduced down to being “crafty”. While, I and many other women enjoy making crafts, it is a slap in the face to serious female artists. They strive and push themselves every day to create. They deserve recognition.

I’ve been a woman since birth and an artist since I was in the womb. It was never lost on me how women artists have to fight for their art. Art is the story of the artist. When you erase the artist, you erase the stories. I am not writing this blog only to entertain and inspire other women artists. I want to showcase these following women’s stories.

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Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun

Marie-Antoinette with the Rose, 1783

Oil on canvas

34.3 x 51.2 inches (87 x 130 cm)

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/marie-antoinette-with-the-rose-louise-elisabeth-vig%C3%A9e-lebrun/qwHgKqLoAQb9FQ?hl=en

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Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, socialite painter

Born in Paris, France, in 1755, Elisabeth Vigee was always meant to be a painter. Her adoring father was also an artist. He encouraged young Vigee to draw and paint, most of her artistic training came from him (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

By the age of 17, Vigee was well known as a professional painter and often commissioned to paint portraits of higher society members. In 1776, at the age of 21, Elisabeth married art dealer, Jean-Baptiste Le Brun. He was very influential, and the marriage elevated her (and her family’s) societal status (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

In 1778, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria commissioned Vigee Le Brun to paint her daughter, Queen Marie Antoinette. The Empress had been dissatisfied with past portraits done of the Queen. Vigee Le Brun was able to impress the Empress and the Queen with flattering portraits. Vigee Le Brun went on to paint over 30 portraits of the Queen and her children (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Vigee Le Brun struggled to get into The French Royal Academy, the most prestigious school in France for artists. The Royal Academy had only four women artists at a given time. There was also a rule about artists not being in direct contact with the art trade, which Vigee Le Brun’s husband was. However, in 1783, Vigee Le Brun was accepted to The Royal Academy under the direction of the Queen (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Vigee Le Brun painted for the Royal Court until the French Revolution of 1789. She fled France and move around Europe (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021). However, Vigee Le Brun was still quite successful at obtaining commissions during this time. After the war, she returned to France in 1802 (Marsh, 2021). Vigee Le Brun continued to paint until her death in 1842 at the age of 86 (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Vigee Le Brun was an oil portraiture painter of the Rococo and Neoclassicism movements. The Rococo movement was defined by the luxury and ornamentation of aristocratic life. Vigee Le Brun was at the epicenter of this movement, which began in 18th century France and spread across Europe (Rococo movement overview 2021).

Vigee Le Brun’s later works reflected the Neoclassic art movement. This movement was in response to the gaudiness of the Rococo period. Neoclassicism looked to Greco-Roman ideals of science, history and math while mirroring the political and social fields of the time (Neoclassicism movement overview 2021).

Vigee Le Brun’s artwork was exceptional for various reasons. Not only was she a successful artist against the odds of her upbringing, but she set an example for a modern era. Her subjects were casual and inviting to viewers. Also, she heavily evoked the female identity into her work. Her work is still studied today among scholars (Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Sources

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - Biography and Legacy. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/vigee-le-brun-elisabeth-louise/life-and-legacy/#nav

Marsh, A. (2021, March 03). The 20 female artists you need to know. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/g7916/best-female-artists/

Rococo movement overview. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/rococo/

Neoclassicism movement overview. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/neoclassicism/

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Camille Claudel

The Waltz, 1895

Bronze

16.9 x 43.0 inches (42.9 x 109.2 cm)

https://fineartbiblio.com/artworks/camille-claudel/8217/the-waltz

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Camille Claudel, tumultuous sculptor

Camille Claudel was born November 8, 1864, in Fere-en-Tardenois, France. During her childhood, Claudel’s parents and siblings moved around France. When the family reached in Nogent-sur-Seine Claudel was already sculpting with clay (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

At the age of 12, Claudel’s art attracted the attention of Alfred Boucher, another successful sculptor. Under his suggestion, Claudel’s father sent his wife and kids to Paris to further Claudel’s art skills. Claudel’s father continued to work and support the family from elsewhere (Rodin and Camille Claudel 2021).

Claudel began sculpting at Academie Colarossi, an extremely progressive school for their admission of female students. Claudel and Boucher began a fruitful student-teacher relationship (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021). In 1882, Boucher won the Paris Salon prize and left for Italy. Before leaving, Boucher asked another successful sculptor, Auguste Rodin to mentor his female pupils (Rodin and Camille Claudel 2021).

Claudel and Rodin developed a complicated relationship. They became mentor-mentee, muses and lovers. Claudel became Rodin’s studio assistant in 1884 and worked on some of his greatest works. During this time, Claudel’s work flourished and attracted attention in the art world (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Rodin highly regarded Claudel but refused to break off his affair with another woman. This caused jealousy and paranoia in Claudel’s life. After 10 years, Claudel and Rodin split permanently (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Rodin often attempted to reconcile throughout Claudel’s life, occasionally sending her money she needed (Rodin and Camille Claudel 2021). Claudel’s work in the following years displayed her sorrow. However, she also had a prolific period of creativity (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Claudel became a recluse starting around 1899. Her financial and mental health declined rapidly. She installed traps at her studio apartment doors and destroyed many of her pieces (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Claudel’s family, except for her father, did not support her art career. After her father’s passing in 1913, Claudel’s remaining family took the opportunity to have her admitted to a mental asylum for paranoia. Even though Claudel’s doctors didn’t believe her to be insane, Claudel’s family wanted her gone forever (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

After entering the asylum and losing hope of ever leaving, Claudel gave up sculpture. She died at the age of 78 in 1943. She was buried on the institution’s grounds and her body was never claimed by her family (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Claudel worked with marble, clay, bronze and more during her relatively short career (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021). Her sculptures were significant to the symbolism movement. Symbolism was the beginning of modernism. It is characterized by suggesting ideas and meaning behind things like lines, colors and shapes (Symbolism movement overview 2021).

Claudel is known as a proto-feminist artist. Her work, along with others of her time, inspired the feminist art movement, which began in the 1960s (Proto-feminist artists 2021). The feminist art movement is still strongly upheld today.

Claudel’s art was living in obscurity until now. Today, her work is rightfully recognized for its portrayal of emotion, including her portrayal of her mental struggles and its ties to sexuality as a woman (Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Sources

Camille Claudel - Biography and Legacy. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/claudel-camille/life-and-legacy/#nav

Proto-feminist artists. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artists/proto-feminist-artists/

Rodin and Camille Claudel. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from http://musee-rodin.fr/en/resources/educational-files/rodin-and-camille-claudel

Symbolism movement overview. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/symbolism/

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Leonora Carrington

The Giantess (The Guardian of the Egg), 1947

Tempera on wood panel

47.3 x 27.3 inches (120.2 x 69.4 cm)

https://onesurrealistaday.com/post/149955860682/the-giantess-the-guardian-of-the-egg-c-1947

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Leonora Carrington, restless surrealist

Leonora Carrington was born April 6, 1917, in England. She was born into an upper-class Irish-Catholic family. Carrington struggled to uphold societal standards placed on her by her family (Leonora Carrington: Artist Profile 2020).

She left her family in 1936 to pursue art, her form of refuge, at the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts in London (Marsh, 2021). That following year, Carrington met an older and married Surrealist, Max Ernst. While surrealism was a very much male-dominated art field, Ernst encouraged Carrington’s work (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

The two began an affair. Ernst was a well-known womanizer and the affair enraged Carrington’s influential father. Her father tried to get Ernst arrested for exhibiting pornographic work. The two moved to Paris soon after this incident and Ernst divorced his wife (Laity, 2017).

After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Ernst was imprisoned for his German citizenship and Carrington fled to Spain. Carrington was overwhelmed with the guilt of leaving Ernst and she was briefly placed in psychiatric treatment (Laity, 2017).

During that time, Carrington underwent powerful drug treatments and shock therapy. Her experience was the inspiration for several of her novels. Ernst and Carrington never resumed their relationship and Carrington went on to briefly marry a Mexican diplomat, Renato Leduc (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

After moving to New York, the couple divorced, and Carrington moved to Mexico City in 1942. In Mexico City, Carrington found a new husband, Hungarian photographer Emeric Weisz. As well as a new community of surrealist artists and artistically inspiring culture (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Carrington’s paintings became autobiographical. They also became heavily influenced by Mexican folklore, the occult and mysticism (Marsh, 2021). Elements of Celtic folklore, which Carrington grew up with, remained in some of her works (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

In the 1970s, Carrington became involved with the Women’s Liberation Movement. She attended rallies and designed posters for organizers (Marsh, 2021). From the 1990s until her death, Carrington remained in Mexico City, only visiting New York and Chicago for art shows and events. She painted, produced bronze sculptures, wrote articles and gave interviews about her life until she died in 2011. She was 94 years old (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Carrington was a brilliant author and painter. She is known as one of the last survivors of the surrealist art movement. Surrealist painters would channel their unconscious for inspiration and imagination. They were influenced by psychoanalysis, myths and primitivism (Surrealism movement overview 2021).

Carrington was essential to the internationalization of Surrealism. Through her artwork and writings, she spread the surrealist theory. Her work was greatly overshadowed by her connection to Ernst until she gained her deserved recognition in later life (Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy 2021).

Sources

Laity, P. (2017, April 05). The surreal life OF Leonora CARRINGTON by Joanna Moorhead – review. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/05/the-surreal-life-of-leonora-carrington-joanna-moorhead-review

Leonora Carrington - Biography and Legacy. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/carrington-leonora/life-and-legacy/

Leonora Carrington: Artist Profile. (2020, October 28). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://nmwa.org/art/artists/leonora-carrington/

Marsh, A. (2021, March 03). The 20 female artists you need to know. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/g7916/best-female-artists/

Surrealism movement overview. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/surrealism/

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Shirin Neshat

Nida (Patriots), from The Book of Kings series, 2012

Ink on LE silver gelatin print

60 x 45 inches (152.4 x 114.3 cm)

https://www.gladstonegallery.com/artist/shirin-neshat/work-detail/583/em-nida-patriots-from-the-book-of-kings-series-em

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Shirin Neshat, political photographer

Shirin Neshat was born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran. Neshat describes the Iranian culture she grew up in as “deeply rooted in poetry and mysticism, where beauty means a heightened sense of emotions and spirituality” (Neshat, 2021). She described it as the way Iranians cope with the horridness of tyranny (Neshat, 2021).

Neshat left her home country in 1974 to pursue a BA from the University of California at Berkeley. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 did not allow her to return to her homeland for nearly 20 years (The Guggenheim museums and foundation 2021).

After graduating in 1983, Neshat moved to New York. While there she discontinued making art, even though it is what she majored in college. In 1993, Neshat took her first trip back to Iran since she was 17 years old, this is the trip that sparked her art career (The Guggenheim museums and foundation 2021).

She began working with photography and produced one of her first photographic series, Woman of Allah, 1993-97. This series established the main aspect of her work: combining images of women and religious text. Today she still creates photography, installation art, film and videos (The Guggenheim museums and foundation 2021).

Neshat is a contemporary artist. Contemporary art is created in a globally connected, culturally diverse and technologically advanced world (Contemporary art - google arts & culture 2021).

Neshat’s work stands out because of the emotion and themes she explores. Her work talks about the opposition of males and females in Islam culture and Western cultures. Her work heavily focuses on those themes as well as oppression and political injustice (Neshat, 2021).

As Neshat explained at an exhibition hosted by Art 19, “I don’t consider myself an activist I believe my art regardless of its nature, is an expression of protest, and a cry for humanity” (Shirin Neshat 2020).

Sources

The Guggenheim museums and foundation. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/shirin-neshat

Marsh, A. (2021, March 03). The 20 female artists you need to know. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/g7916/best-female-artists/

Neshat, S. (2021, February 15). Shirin Neshat on TELLING complex stories through art. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/style/article/shirin-neshat-personal-essay-art/index.html

Contemporary art - google arts & culture. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/contemporary-art/m0h0vk?hl=en

Shirin Neshat. (2020). Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.art-19.com/shirin-neshat