WOMAN Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna

Touring Exhibition Venues:

Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger, Norway, 16th of June - 14th October, 2018; Dům umění města Brna, Brno, Czech Republic December 11th, 2018 - March 3rd, 2019 ; International Center of Photography, New York City September 2019 - January 2020

curated by Gabriele Schor, Hanne Beate Ueland, and Vibece Salthe

With an exhibition of 200 works from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND collection, Stavanger Art Museum is presenting one of the most important phenomena in the art history of the 1970s—the emancipation of women artists, who began to create their own new and collective self-determined image of women in an art world dominated by men. In line with the slogan “the private is political,” these artists reflected on stereotypical social expectations in their works.
The exhibition is divided into five sections: reduction to mother, housewife and wife, role-plays, the normativity of beauty, female sexuality and the outbreak of social constraints. Many of the artists represented here moved away from the male-dominated genre of painting and turned to historically less predetermined media like photography, video, film, and performance. The founding director Gabriele Schor coined the term FEMINIST AVANTGARDE for this movement—as a way of underscoring its significance.

Exhibition themes:

Reduction to mother, housewife and wife
Alter Ego: Masquerade, Parody and Self-Representation
Sexuality and Objectification
Normativity and Beauty
Locked Up / Breaking Out

Participating artists: Helena Almeida, 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, Esther Ferrer, Margaret Harrison, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alexis Hunter, Sanja Iveković, Birgit Jürgenssen, Kirsten Justesen, Auguste Kronheim, Ketty La Rocca, Leslie Labowitz, Suzanne Lacy, Katalin Ladik, Suzy Lake, Brigitte Lang, Natalia LL, Karin Mack, Ana Mendieta, Rita Myers, Lorraine O‘Grady, ORLAN, Florentina Pakosta, Gina Pane, Letítia Parente, Ewa Partum, Friederike Pezold, Margot Pilz, 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.