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Miriam Schapiro-Works on Paper: A Thirty-Year Retrospective
72 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1999
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January 18, 2010
I am reviewing this in conjunction with "Miriam Shapiro: A Retrospective 1953-80" which I could not find listed anywhere linked to Goodreads to add (I got it out of the NY Public Library).
"Feminist" has become a dirty word, so the essays and interviews in Miriam Shaprio's "Retrospective" can cause some discomfort to a reader in 2010. When quilts hang as art in major museums, what's the fuss? But the art/craft/decoration/male/female divide in creative pursuits has not really gone away.
Shapiro uses "female" "decorative" elements--fabric, needlework, hearts, fans--but she does not do the designing or stitching, or adopt the original scale of her inspirations--she collages them into huge works, combining them with accepted art forms, creating the distance the art critics seem to need from their actual production as useful household goods in order to consider them seriously. Shapiro worked with Judy Chicago to help create acceptability for art created in a traditionally female sensibility and to honor the anonymous or unknown female artists of the past. But she herself at the same time worked mostly in and with the confines of the art/design/craft divide.
The quilts of Gee's Bend are not the only useful creations worthy of admiration. The average working textile designer generates many works that equal the average item being sold as "art", that could easily be framed and hung on a wall. But it seems a political or cultural or artistic statement is needed beyond the creation to validate what has been done.
Shapiro's work, all artistic interpretation and commentary aside, is interesting and compelling. I like that she is constantly exploring different ideas--her art evolves, goes off on tangeants, circles back to incorporate old ideas with new ones. The large scale of many of them multiplies the impact. I especially like "Anatomy of a Kimono" for its movement through and exploration of design, color, and form. Some of the theater pieces with silhouette figures anticipate Kara Walker; her pioneering computer-inspired paintings complement the work of Sol Lewitt; "The Dollhouse" is in the spirit of Joseph Cornell. She borrows from both well-known art by women and the many expressive elements of every house and every woman's life inside it. The symbolic content adds to the visual impact.
"...I had downplayed my mother's importance because she didn't go out in the world and I thought what was important was that my father went out in the world and did things." says Shapiro. But she eventually realizes "...despite the need to do so many chores, women still made art. So the historical fact remains that they made art in the home and not in a studio down the road."
Miriam Shapiro has worked at creation that combines what comes from both traditions.
"Feminist" has become a dirty word, so the essays and interviews in Miriam Shaprio's "Retrospective" can cause some discomfort to a reader in 2010. When quilts hang as art in major museums, what's the fuss? But the art/craft/decoration/male/female divide in creative pursuits has not really gone away.
Shapiro uses "female" "decorative" elements--fabric, needlework, hearts, fans--but she does not do the designing or stitching, or adopt the original scale of her inspirations--she collages them into huge works, combining them with accepted art forms, creating the distance the art critics seem to need from their actual production as useful household goods in order to consider them seriously. Shapiro worked with Judy Chicago to help create acceptability for art created in a traditionally female sensibility and to honor the anonymous or unknown female artists of the past. But she herself at the same time worked mostly in and with the confines of the art/design/craft divide.
The quilts of Gee's Bend are not the only useful creations worthy of admiration. The average working textile designer generates many works that equal the average item being sold as "art", that could easily be framed and hung on a wall. But it seems a political or cultural or artistic statement is needed beyond the creation to validate what has been done.
Shapiro's work, all artistic interpretation and commentary aside, is interesting and compelling. I like that she is constantly exploring different ideas--her art evolves, goes off on tangeants, circles back to incorporate old ideas with new ones. The large scale of many of them multiplies the impact. I especially like "Anatomy of a Kimono" for its movement through and exploration of design, color, and form. Some of the theater pieces with silhouette figures anticipate Kara Walker; her pioneering computer-inspired paintings complement the work of Sol Lewitt; "The Dollhouse" is in the spirit of Joseph Cornell. She borrows from both well-known art by women and the many expressive elements of every house and every woman's life inside it. The symbolic content adds to the visual impact.
"...I had downplayed my mother's importance because she didn't go out in the world and I thought what was important was that my father went out in the world and did things." says Shapiro. But she eventually realizes "...despite the need to do so many chores, women still made art. So the historical fact remains that they made art in the home and not in a studio down the road."
Miriam Shapiro has worked at creation that combines what comes from both traditions.
Displaying 1 of 1 review