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Artist-author Judy Chicago recalls her 1962 college history class. When the topic of women's contributions came up, her professor said, "They made none." Such is the ignorance of women's history, art or otherwise, said Chicago to a group of IU graduate and undergraduate students.
  Judy Chicago, Peg Brand and Jean Robertson (above, left to right) lead a class discussion about why Chicago's work, The Dinner Party, is considered an icon of feminist art. Jan Zunkel (in lower photo), a junior undergraduate fine arts major at Herron School of Art at IUPUI, joins in. Zunkel is also a student in Chicago's studio project class. "We talk about some really difficult issues, and sometimes that is personally challenging," Zunkel said. "But it's really important to verbalize those issues and get a sense of where they fit into the larger context."Photos by Heather Hill
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Chicago, who coined the term "feminist art" while teaching at Fresno State, has returned to the classroom after 25 years to teach at Indiana University with Peg Brand, assistant professor of gender studies and philosophy, and Jean Robertson, assistant professor of art history at Herron School of Art at IUPUI, for an interdisciplinary study of feminist art. The class, "Foundations of Feminist Art: History, Philosophy, Context," is offered under three separate course listings--in gender studies and philosophy at IUB and in art history at IUPUI.
"Bringing her to campus afforded the unique opportunity to marry the practice and theory of art, and to explore a term such as 'feminist art,'" said Brand. "And the exhibit of her 30 years of work at the IU Art Museum gives us the opportunity to really look at the actual work while studying the concept." (The exhibit runs through the end of October.)
To Robertson, issues in this particular class are so complex, a team approach was required. "Feminism is not the purview of any one discipline; it is philosophy, ethics and politics, all of which should inform anything a feminist thinks and does," she said. "Feminist art, from its origins in the 1970s, has challenged prevailing artistic practices, aesthetics, theory and criticism. The stakes are high, and they cross disciplinary boundaries involving the practice of art, its evaluation and interpretation, and what art is historically recorded and how that history is interpreted."
The class explores the historical and philosophical context of feminist art, a term yet to be defined--what is it, who makes it? Each session involves time designated for all students, in turn, to present a view on the assigned topic of the day.
"We are invested in 'feminist pedagogy,' which involves a respect for every person in the room, creates the opportunity for everyone to have a voice," Robertson explained. "It is a powerful alternative to the usual model of one authority figure who does most of the talking and has the final word on a given subject."
All three agree that team teaching allows a multi-layered examination of the topic at hand, one that Robertson says produces not only the sum of several disciplines, but when working well, creates a new approach of interwoven disciplines.
Chicago, herself, has always considered art education a synthesis. "I really don't see myself as a teacher or instructor, so much as a facilitator," she explained. "I try to facilitate creativity."
While many in the art world know her only for The Dinner Party, Chicago remains prolifically relevant, designing projects that often combine painting with the work of artisans who use various art forms, many traditionally done by women--needlework, lace draping, china painting, stained glass, weaving and tapestry making. Since the '70s, she has designed and created powerful images of birth and creation in The Birth Project, looked at a world in which possessing power stifles men and their emotions in Powerplay, and explored her Jewish heritage in The Holocaust Project. Chicago's more recent work includes Song of Songs, and her newest, Resolutions--A Stitch in Time, opens next June at the American Craft Museum in New York.
"I wouldn't do this class without them," said Chicago of her current collaboration with Brand and Robertson. "They provide the history and philosophy that allows me to be an artist. So many people teaching are not conversant of women's history, women's art, women's issues and women's subject matter. Even well meaning professors don't have the background, and when that context is missing, the appropriate tools for evaluating women making art are missing."
For a complete listing of Newsweek's "ten works of art that have rocked the ages," go to:
http://www.newsweek.com/nwsrv/issue/15_99b/printed/us/so/at0215_1.htm
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