Recently I read an article in The Art Newspaper titled "The Mamas Take Their Place With The Dadas". It was an interesting article talking about Ruth Hemus' goal to further explore Linda Nochlin's question “Why have there been no great women artists?” Ruth Hemus goes on to name five women artists that are connected with the Dada movement including Emmy Hennings, Sophie Taeuber, Hannah Höch, Suzanne Duchamp and Céline Arnauld. Of course I do not expect any of you to have heard of these artists. The argument is that in the past women were forgotten because of male dominated press coupled with male art historians. Yet this article poses room for argument since it never addresses the suppression of women's actions. It never brings up the idea that women artists may be rare because they were expected to take care of the home instead. So is it the recipe of little press, no historical documentation and women's alternative expectations that cause our lack of a more vibrant past or does one of these factors tip the scale?
We invite to read the article and tell us your opinion
If family and child-rearing were considered the important life's work of women, then even if women were accomplished in other areas of their lives, such as work or art, these wouldn't be considered as important by comparison, and therefore not worth mentioning or remembering. It was probably culturally understood and assumed, as people still assume many things about women's roles today. This underlying assumption would influence everything else-- the lack of press and historical documentation, etc. In my opinion, it ends up being a recipe for forgetting female artists.
ReplyDelete