FEMINIST AVANT-GARDE OF THE 1970s Works from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna at The Brno House of Arts

Description

The exhibition at the Brno House of Arts in Czech Republic features over 200 works of art from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna, that show how feminist artists in the 1970s began to subvert cultural constructions of women. In the process, they used their bodies as ‘projection screens’ for displaying social codes and their critique of such codes. The aim of the exhibition is to underscore the pioneering achievements of the “Feminist Avant-Garde”, a term that was coined by the collections founding director, Gabriele Schor, to rewrite the canon of art history.
Making use of relatively new art media such as photography, film, video, performance and happenings, these women artists deconstructed existing restrictive cultural and social conditioning and the mechanisms and automatisms of female oppression. For the first time in the history of art, women artists began collectively taking “representations of women” into their own hands by creating a plurality of self-determined female identities. In their works, they confronted Western society as a whole, and the art scene in particular, with radically new questions about the roles of women. The rejection of ideas conforming to traditional norms is the common link amongst the female artists of that generation. Against the backdrop of the events of 1968, the feminist movement left its mark with the rallying slogan “The personal is political”, thus challenging the one-dimensional roles assigned to women — mother, housewife, and spouse.
Artists
Helena Almeida, Emma Amos, Sonia Andrade, Eleanor Antin, Anneke Barger, Lynda Benglis, Judith Bernstein, Renate Bertlmann, Dara Birnbaum, Teresa Burga, Marcella Campagnano, Judy Chicago, Linda Christanell, Lili Dujourie, Mary Beth Edelson, Renate Eisenegger, VALIE EXPORT, Gerda Fassel, Esther Ferrer, Margaret Harrison, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alexis Hunter, Mako Idemitsu, Sanja Iveković, Birgit Jürgenssen, Kirsten Justesen, Auguste Kronheim, Ketty La Rocca, Leslie Labowitz, Suzanne Lacy, Suzy Lake, Katalin Ladik, Brigitte Lang, Natalia LL, Lea Lublin, Karin Mack, Ana Mendieta, Rita Myers, Lorraine O’Grady, ORLAN, Florentina Pakosta, Gina Pane, Letícia Parente, Ewa Partum, Friederike Pezold, Margot Pilz, Howardena Pindell, Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Suzanne Santoro, Carolee Schneemann, Lydia Schouten, Elaine Shemilt, Cindy Sherman, Penny Slinger, Annegret Soltau, Betty Tompkins, Regina Vater, Hannah Wilke, Martha Wilson, Francesca Woodman, Nil Yalter

Period	12 Dec 2018 → 24 Feb 2019
Degree of Recognition	International