Miriam Schapiro Challenging notions of High Art with Femmage

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Miriam Schapiro

• Challenging notions of High Art with Femmage

Miriam Schapiro in front of her piece, Pleasure
Dome, at Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art
Gallery on Reade St. Downtown Express photo by
Elisabeth Robert
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Miriam Schapiro

• Born in Toronto 1923
• Studied painting in New York
• Began working in Abstract Expressionist style but
  during
• 1960s developed Feminist works
• Established Feminist Art programme at Cal arts
• Collaborated with Judy Chicago in Womanhouse
• Instrumental in the growth of the Pattern and
  Decoration movement who aimed to destabilise
  preconceptions of high art embraced beauty and
  humour in a time of minimalist, intellectual art.

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Femmage

• combination of paint and feminine materials
  e.g. fabric, embroidery, quilting, clothing in
  compositions
• For Schapiro her collaborator Melissa Meyer it
  is a high art term that describes what women have
  been doing for centuries assembling pictures
  from assorted materials e.g. through
• Sewing, piecing, hooking, quilting, appliqueing
• Blurs the boundaries between fine arts as she
  uses paint AND fabrics
• She transforms and reveals crafts
• WHY IS THIS CHARACTERISTICALLY FEMINIST?

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Anonymous was a Woman 1977

• series of prints was made from actual doilies,
  the lacy cloths of flowers, hearts, baby bonnets
  etc.
• I chose this media because traditional womens
  work, such as embroidery and crocheting, were not
  signed, said Schapiro  

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The Doll House 1972

• Part of the Womenhouse project
• Made in collaboration with artist Sherry Brody
• Highly decorated
• Sense of fantasy / fun
• How does this work convey Feminist ideas?

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Close up of two rooms
Feminism taught me not to worry about what I was
allowed or not allowed to do as a serious
artist. (Miriam Schapiro)

• Decorative is not a dirty word (Art Critic
  David Bourdon, 1976 in a review in the Village
  Voice)

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Anatomy of A Kimono 1975-76

• Detail of the monumental 50 ft wide femmage
  (installation at Andre Emmerich gallery 1976)
• Give 2 ways this work declares itself high art
• Iconography what 3 motifs are visible in this
  section? What is suggested by the black figure?
• Why do you think she chose the kimono?

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Anatomy of a Kimono

• On the choice of the kimono,
• Schapiro said,
• I wanted to speak directly to women I chose
  the Kimono as a ceremonial robe for the new
  woman. I wanted her to be dressed with the power
  of her own office, her inner strength I wanted
  the kimonos to be a surrogate for me, for others.
  Later I remembered that men also wore kimonos,
  so the piece had an androgynous quality.
• Many Pattern Decoration artists drew
  inspiration from Celtic, Byzantine and Islamic
  art. For Schapiro, it was Japanese art.

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Mary Cassatt and Me 1976

• She termed these works collaborations (metaphor
  for her homage to the earlier artists work)
• In what ways does this resemble a shrine?
• Why do you think she has chosen this image?

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Conservatory (Portrait of Frida Kahlo) 1988
Acrylic/collagen canvas, triptych, 72"x152". 3.

• Frida Kahlo presented with features of Miriam
  Schapiro
• Resembles the Mexican goddess of birth death
  Tlazeoteot'l

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Barcelona Fan 1979

• Materials Paint, Fabric glued on canvas.
• Size 1.83 x 3.66m
• Style How does this work present itself as High
  Art ? (consider composition, form, size). In
  what ways can it be considered decorative?
• Iconography why a fan?

Women have always been able to make something
out of nothing. (Miriam Schapiro)
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Mother Russia 1994

• Features Russian modernist women artists
• Iconography what colours and motifs communicate
  the theme of this work?

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Wonderland 1983 Describe the various art forms
you can see. What is the central image?
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Wonderland

• 2.5 x 4m this is an enormous painting
• Media Acrylic and fabric collage on canvas
• Old Australian needlework (this made after
  Schapiros return from Australia in 1983) e.g
• Embroidered handkerchiefs
• Crocheted aprons
• Table linen with maps of Australia
• Quilting on the border
• Lacework
• Iconography (as described by Schapiro herself)
• The central image is an apologetic housewife in
  a 1920s kitchen
• She makes a slight curtsy in our direction as if
  to see, Im sorry, excuse me for living.
• I felt that by making a large canvas magnificent
  in colour, design and proportion I could raise a
  housewifes lowered consciousness.

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Master of Ceremonies 1985

• ICONOGRAPHY
• Describe the figures in this work. What ideas
  about men and women do they suggest?
• Which character do you think might represent the
  artist?
• What might this work say about identity?
• What is suggested by the stage lights?

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Master of Ceremonies

• 3 figures The male is in the center, the focus
  of attention
• the mother figure is peripheral and even more
  fully part of the masquerade of femininity
• the daughter has rejected traditional femininity
  in her costume, her position, and her movement.
• . 
• Although the Schapiro figure holds a palette, she
  is more like a cloth doll, without a spine, than
  a strong person.
• The lights on the floor of the stage look like
  flaming pots, and one has to wonder if this image
  is an image of successful separation and
  construction of role and gender identity or the
  opposite. 
• It is, afterall, almost an apocalypse, with the
  leaning buildings in the background, but one
  which is masked by the performance of the
  theater. (www.radford.edu)

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Summary Key Characteristics of Schapiros art

• imagery from the women's sphere quilts, houses,
  clothing, fans.
• she collaborates with the work of women artists
  who were invisible in art history whom she wants
  to place in an artistic genealogy with herself.
• Her large scale Femmage challenges notions of
  high art by bringing traditionally female art
  forms into fine art contexts
• This allows her to pay homage to artists whose
  legacy she wants to preserve
• it is also a method she uses to explore her own
  identity as a woman artist.

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What do you think?

• Is Miriam Schapiros work is successful in
  claiming a place in history for the materials,
  techniques and art forms traditionally associated
  with women?

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References

• http//www.radford.edu/rbarris/Women20and20art/m
  iriam20schapiro.html
• http//www.downtownexpress.com/de_42/legendaryfemi
  nist.html
• http//matrixpress.blogspot.com/2009/05/miriam-sch
  apiro.html
• Entry on Miriam Schapiro in the Concise
  Dictionary of Women Artists, by Mary Francey.
• Norma Broude, Miriam Schapiro Femmage from
  The Power of Feminist Art