Woman's Building Research Articles

Stories from a Generation: Early Video at the LA Woman's Building

In 1994, Elayne Zalis, Video Archivist at the Long Beach Museum of Art, brought a number of tapes to the University of California at Irvine to do a presentation on early by women. tapes were from a show curated by JoAnn Hanley called The First Generation: Women and Video, 1970-75. I was teaching production at UC, Irvine, and had heard from a colleague that Long Beach had a collection of tapes from the Los Angeles Woman's Building. I mistakenly assumed that Hanley's show was based on this work. tapes that Zalis presented from The First Generation show were very exciting both as artwork and as documents of the feminist movement of the 1970s, but the show was not in fact based on the Woman's Building collection. My mistake became my good fortune. Curious about the archive at Long Beach, I began to research the Woman's Building tapes. Eventually I watched over 40 of the tapes and therein rediscovered a rich vein of early feminist work. work raised questions about the presence of at the Woman's Building and how it compared to the larger picture of who was working in at the time. I wondered why this work had been all but lost to the history of video. In 1991 the Woman's Building in Los Angeles closed its doors after almost 20 years of operation. It had been designed as a place for women to make art in a non-competitive environment. plan was utopian by today's standards, but within the framework of the feminism of 1973 it made perfect sense. Video was an intensely popular medium at the Building, and by 1991 approximately 350 videotapes had been produced there. tapes from the 1970s represent the most interesting part of the collection in terms of an expression of ideals of feminist artmaking, and in terms of having every element of purpose and experimentation in common with the early works of recognized pioneers: Nam June Paik, William Wegman, Bruce Nauman, Chris Burden and Vito Acconci. videomakers from the Woman's Building go a few steps further than these canonized videomakers by placing a wildly optimistic and imaginative set of ideals about artmaking onto a detailed and unyielding feminist ideological ground. Some of them made work that incorporates the ways in which women's sexuality, and specifically lesbianism, could be politicized, theorized and represented in content, and even more frequently as context. Personal love relationships did promote collaborations at the Building, and it seemed important for personal identity and group identity to be fused. Feminist art as a genre not only involves process and methodology, but also has personal, political and social history at its foundation. Given traditional art historical models for recognizing and validating work, it is easy to make connections between the politicizing of artwork and their erasure from art history. That the work is in makes it that much more obscure. situation calls for revision. Video History accepted history of video, however prematurely written, goes something like this: when artists took up in the early 1960s there were one or two fathers of video who understood its meaning as television, mechanism and mirror.(1) They had the insight to explore its properties in an art context, and were able to make the art world take notice. Shortly thereafter other artists began to use in what seemed like a simultaneous explosion of experimentation and process-oriented, non-object artmaking. A canon of artists, mostly male, was quickly put into place. David Ross contributes a paragraph of his essay, Postmodern Station Break: A Provisional (Historic) Overview of Video Installation to this story: [I]t is generally proposed that art's specific origins are located in the early 1960s' German avant-garde scene dominated by Group Zero and Fluxus and the parallel American scene dominated by the confluence of Pop Art and Happenings. …

Honing Technologies That Build Women's Economic Base

Honing Technologies That Build Women's Economic Base

Argument and Community in the Markets Debate

In this essay, I use personal experience in the markets debate to illustrate how relationships of power are used to silence opposing arguments and dominate debate. I argue that presentation of women's experience and building on previous research by feminists must be accepted as valid arguments in a feminist community. Finally, I urge feminists to work together and reject these power plays.

Bibliography

BIBUOGRAPHY Anne Epstein The foUowing list of sdiolarly articles pubUshed in EngUsh since 1985 is presented to assist readers in keeping up with the latest scholarship on women's history and to fadtitate assessment of areas in whidi more researdi is needed. We try to ensure that these thematic bibliographies reflect the state of the field, although with the increasing volume of works on women now appearing we cannot guarantee they wül be exhaustive. In this issue we will focus on works on Art, Literature, and Performing Arts. Because space is limited, we have not included literary genres such as biography, autobiography, and personal narrative. Future bibtiographies wül hightight these forms, as weU as other aspects of cultural Ufe inducting Music and Popular Culture. The Journal's thematic bibUographies of current English-language scholarship serve to supplement our Journal of Women's History Guide to Periodical Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992; 512 pp; ISBN 0-252-32219-7 (d), $39.95; ISBN 0-253-20720-7 (pb), $18.95). We are pleased to announce that a second volume of the Guide is currently in preparation. This ongoing bibliographical projed is part of the goal of the Journal of Women's History to serve as the journal of record for women's history in the United States and abroad. ART General Boime, Albert. "Maria Deraismes and Eva Gonzales: A Feminist Critique of TJne Loge aux Théâtre des Italiens/ " Woman's Art Journal 15 (FaU 1994/Winter 1995): 31-37. BonneU, Vidoria. "The Peasant Woman in Stalinist PoUtical Art of the 1930s." American Historical Review 98, no. 1 (1993): 55-82. Brown, Elizabeth A. " The Living Objecf : The Art CoUection of EUen H. Johnson." Allen Art Museum Bulletin 45, no. 1/2 (1992): 8-25. Burns, Sarah. "The Tïarnest, Untiring Worker' and the Magidan of the Brush: Gender PoUtics in the Criticism of Cedtia Beaux and John Singer Sargent." Oxford Art Journal 15, no. 1 (1992): 36-53. Cash, Stephanie. "The Art Critidsm and PoUtics of Lucy Lippard." Art Criticism 9, no. 1 (1994): 32-40. ©1995 Journal of Women's History, Vol 7 No. ζ (Summer) 1995 BIBUOGRAPHY 193 Crosthwaite, Jane F. " Ά White and Seamless Robe': CeUbacy and EquaUty in Shaker Art and Theory." Colby Library Quarterly 25 (September 1989): 188-198. DeLong, Lea Rosson. "Louise Noun: A Pioneer CoUedor of Women's Art." Woman's Art Journal 13 (FaU 1992/Winter 1993): 17-20. Dubrow, Gaü Lee. "Qaiming PubUc Space for Women's History in Boston: A Proposal for Preservation, PubUc Art, and PubUc Historical Interpretation ." Frontiers 13, no. 1 (1992): 111-148. Fahlman, Betsy. "Women Art Students at Yale, 1869-1913: Never True Sons of the University." Woman's Art Journal 12 (Summer 1991): 15-23. Fer, Briony. "Whaf s in a Line? Gender and Modernity." Oxford Art Journal 13, no. 1 (1990): 77-88. HeUand, Janice. "The Critics and the Arts and Crafts: The Instance of Margaret Macdonald and Charles Rennie Mackintosh." Art History Yl (June 1994): 209-227. Herzog, Charlotte. "A Rose by Any Other Name: Violet Oakley, Jessie WUcox Smith, and Elizabeth Shippen Green." Woman's Art Journal 14 (FaU 1993/Winter 1994): 11-16. Higonnet, Anne. "Writing the Gender of the Image: Art Critidsm in Late Nineteenth-Century France." Genders 6 (November 1989): 60-73. Hutton, John. "Mary Cassatf s Modern Woman and the Woman's Building of 1893." Feminist Studies 20 (Summer 1994): 318-348. Lambton, Gwenda. "ACoUaboration in Ottawa: The Saint-Vincent Hospital Mural." Woman's Art Journal 13 (Spring/Summer 1992): 19-22. LeaveU, Linda. "When Marianne Moore Buys Pictures." American Literary History 5 (Summer 1993): 250-271. Leßmann, Sabina. "Susanna Maria von Sandrart: Women Artists in Seventeenth -Century Nürnberg." Woman's Art Journal 14 (Spring/Summer 1993): 10-14. Marquardt-Cherry, Janet T. "Katja Oxman: Working in the Tradition of the Woman Artist." Woman's Art Journal 14 (Spring/Summer 1993): 21-27. Masten, April F. "Model Into Artist: The Changing Face of Art Historical Biography." Women's Studies 21, no. 1 (1992): 17-41. Mathews, Patrida. "Gender Analysis and the Work of Meyer Sdiapiro." Oxford Art Journal 17, no. 1 (1994): 81-91. McCuUough...

Picking Fruit: Mary Cassatt's "Modern Woman" and the Woman's Building of 1893

Picking Fruit: Mary Cassatt's "Modern Woman" and the Woman's Building of 1893

Lucia Fairchild Fuller's "Lost" Woman's Building Mural

Charlene G. Garfinkle For more than ninety-two years, the Blow-Me-Down Grange in Plainfield, New Hampshire, has had a large-scale oil painting, with clear, bright colors, fastened to the wall at the back of its stage. Grange members knew that it had been painted by a woman artist named Lucia Fairchild Fuller, whose husband loaned the mural to the Grange in April 1900. What they didn't know, however, is that the mural had a very impressive history: it had been displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition. In honor of the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Among the exhibition pavilions at the exposition was the Woman's Building, designed and decorated entirely by women under the direction of the Board of Lady Managers. The interior decoration in this building's Hall of Honor (fig. 1) included six individual murals, the most famous being the Modern Woman mural by Mary Cassatt. Its corresponding mural at the end of the hall, Primitive Woman, was painted by Mary MacMonnies. The four side murals were Art, Science and Literature by Lydia Field Emmet, The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Arcadia by Amanda Brewster Sewell, and Women of Plymouth (fig. 2) by Lucia Fairchild Fuller. Until recently, all of the murals had been presumed lost or destroyed. But nearly one hundred years after its execution, one of these murals, The Women of Plymouth, has been located and identified for the historic treasure that it is. Lucia Fairchild Fuller (1870/2-1924) studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston and later at the New York Art Students League with William Merritt Chase and the muralist H. Siddons Mowbray. She had intended to become a muralist herself, but financial problems in the mid-1890s prompted her to find a more lucrative specialization. She eventually became a well-known miniaturist and was instrumental in the resurgence of this particular art form at the turn of the century.' In early 1893, Fuller had received a commission to paint one of the side murals intended for the Hall of Honor of the Woman's Building. Although details regarding the commission of the Cassatt and MacMonnies tympana murals and the Sherwood and Emmet side murals are well documented in correspondence of the Board of Lady Managers, no reference is made to the Sewell and Fuller murals prior to their completion and installation. Sherwood, Emmet, and Sewell probably received their commissions through their connection to Candace Wheeler, the art director of the Woman's Building, and her daughter, Dora Wheeler Keith, who painted the ceiling decoration of the library

Lan Na Textiles: Yuan hue Lao. By Songsak Prangwatthanakun and Patricia Cheesman. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, 1987. 108 pp. - Textiles as Texts: Arts of Hmong Women from Laos. By Amy Catlin and Dixie Swift. Los Angeles: The Women's Building, 1987. 29 pp. $6.00 (paper).

Lan Na Textiles: Yuan hue Lao. By Songsak Prangwatthanakun and Patricia Cheesman. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, 1987. 108 pp. - Textiles as Texts: Arts of Hmong Women from Laos. By Amy Catlin and Dixie Swift. Los Angeles: The Women's Building, 1987. 29 pp. $6.00 (paper). - Volume 48 Issue 4

The Limits of Sisterhood: The Woman's Building in Seattle, 1908-1921

A modest, two-story wooden structure has stood on the University of Washington campus in Seattle since 1909. Known as the Woman's Building, it served to nurture cooperation among all women at the Alaska-YukonPacific Exposition and then, more importantly, between female students at the school and the community's clubwomen. In 1916, however, female separatism and the sisterhood that it cultivated lost the battle to a new ideology-that of women's equality with men in the larger society. Only seven years after its inception, the space, which fostered women's cooperation, was assigned for other purposes and no facility was substituted by the institution to serve such an outmoded goal. The history of the emergence and downfall of the Woman's Building serves to illustrate a national phenomenon of the era, that of women's efforts to halt, in colleges and all society, the demise of respect for women's collaborative efforts. Here is simply one example of the broad and unsuccessful effort to stay the erosion of sisterhood. Mature women, since the late nineteenth century, had formed their own clubs and societies in reaction to their

The Fair Women

The World's Columbian Exposition included amazing exhibits of the results of women's activities-in the arts, industry, science, politics and philanthropy. Most of these were housed in the Woman's Building, which was designed, decorated and administered entirely by women.

An Oral History of Lesbianism

An Oral Herstory of Lesbianism is an experimental theater art work collaboratively created by thirteen lesbians and performed for thirteen nights at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles in May, 1979. Each of the stories in the play is based on the true experiences of the women who created them, ranging in subject from pre-lesbian experiences to our creative visions. They share in common the belief that claiming our herstory is a step towards creating our future. The project was inspired and supported by my work with Arlene Raven in the Lesbian Art Project (LAP). Women who worked on the play signed contracts to affirm a strong commitment to the work. Each woman committed to attend all work sessions, participate in workshop exercises, fulfill outside assignments, and meet financial and copyright agreements. The thirteen women who wrote, performed, and directed the play also invested $100 each in the production. We began the project with a series of ten workshops which were designed to teach performance skills and techniques, create group trust and bonding, and explore issues of lesbianism by examining our own experiences, out of which we would generate material for the play. The wide range of opinions and experience shared in this supportive envir;-~ ??

"In Mourning and in Rage ..."

Mourning and In Rage . was conceived as a response to Leslie and Suzanne's very personal grief and rage over the incidents of rape-murder in Los Angeles which are labeled the Hillside Strangler Case. After reading about the tenth victim, they decided to design a media event which would include the collaborative participation of women's organizations, city government, and members of the women's community. Seventy women dressed in black gathered at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles. The women received instructions for the event which began when ten actresses dressed in black mourning emerged from the Building and entered a hearse. The hearse and two motorcycle escorts departed from the Building, followed by twenty-two cars filled with women in black. Each car had its lights on and displayed two stickers: Funeral and Stop Violence Against Women. The motorcade circled City Hall twice and stopped in front of the assembled members of the news media. One at a time, nine seven-foot-tall veiled women mourners emerged from the hearse and stood in a line on the sidewalk. The final figure emerged, an active woman clothed in scarlet. The ten women faced the street as the hearse departed while women from the motorcade procession drove slowly past in silent homage to the mourners. Forming a procession three abreast, the mourners walked toward the steps in front of City Hall. Women from the motorcade positioned themselves on either side of the steps forming a black-clothed chorus from a modern tragedy. They unfurled a banner which read Memory of Our Sisters, Women Fight Back. As soon as the media had positioned itself to record this second part of the event, the first mourner walked toward the microphone and in a loud, clear voice said I am here for the ten women who have been raped and strangled between October 18 and November 291 The chorus echoed her with memory of our sisters, we fight back! as she was wrapped with a brilliant red scarf by the woman clothed in red. She took her place on the steps, followed by the second mourner. Each of the nine women made her statement which connected this

"Three Weeks in May": Speaking Out on Rape, a Political Art Piece

[Editors' note: The following pages describe a unique project employing feminist art as a means of exposing and ending the rape of women. Artist Suzanne Lacy, in collaboration with other artists and performers, created a twenty-five by six-foot map of the Los Angeles area that was displayed in the downtown City Mall May 8-28, 1977. Every day, on the basis of rape statistics reported by the Los Angeles Police Department, Lacy stenciled RAPE in red letters on the map to designate sexual assaults reported the previous day. The map, viewed by countless shoppers, downtown workers, and tourists, was accompanied by a full schedule of public events--rallies, self-defense demonstrations, art performances, rape speakouts, readings, and panels. Three Weeks in May, which was sponsored by the Studio Watts Workshop and the Women's Building, was designed by Lacy and her co-workers only in part as a graphic statement of women's victimization through rape; the project also focused strongly on a map of service organizations that help rape victims, as well as the large number of public activities sponsored by the agencies. Collaboration among the artists--Lacy, Barbara Cohen, Melissa Hoffman, Leslie Labowitz-Starus, and Jill Soderholm, and among community agencies, women's groups, and information systems created an unprecedented and powerful venture coming the arts and the real world. The following speech was given by Suzanne Lacy on May 25, 1977.]