Viewing page 5 of 50

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

5-

if it does, such a statement might come from an artist who, exploring her own experience, is doing just that! Today the greatest compliment a woman artist can receive is no longer "you paint like a man".

Totally aside from the political necessities fulfilled by women's shows, they also provide a fascinating field of speculation for the question asked so often over the last two or three years: Is there a Women's Art? And if so, what is it like? One of the difficulties of drawing any conclusions so early in the game is the fact that art is inevitably influenced by other art publicly made visible, which now means primarily art by men. However, the overwhelming fact remains that a woman's experience in this society --social and biological-- is simply not like that of a man. If art comes from inside, as it must, then the art of men and women must be different too. And if this factor does not show up in woman's work, only repression can be to blame.
For every time I can be specific about this differentiation, there are endless times in which it remains just out of reach. Perhpas it is impossible to pin it down until women's place in society is indeed equalized and women's work can be studied outside of the confines of oppressive conditioning. Nevertheless, generalizations are made in every field, especially art, and oftan profitably. It seems more important that our eyes and spirits be attuned to the glimpses we are afforded of women's sensibility and imagery. There are some things I've noticed that I can't seem to deny. For example, in 1966 I was organizing a show around the work of Eva Hesse and Frank Viner -- a kind of off-beat, not quite minimal,not quite funky style that later developed into so-called anti-form. I found a lot of women doing this kind of sensuous geometric work --