Feminist art movement in the United States
The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early1970s and sought to promote the study, creation and understanding of women's art. First-generation figures such as Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro and Suzanne Lacy built programs, exhibitions and collaborative projects - most famously Womanhouse (1972) and Chicago's Dinner Party - that placed women's lives, bodies and craft traditions at the center of art. Working from the broader women's movement and its consciousness-raising methods, these artists challenged both the museums' neglect of women and the hierarchy that ranked painting and sculpture above 'women's work' like textiles and ceramics. Their work reshaped art education, criticism and museum programming for generations after.
Defining characteristics
- Women's lived experience, body and labor as central subject matter
- Collaborative and community-based practice, often leaderless
- Craft media - textiles, ceramics, needlework - elevated into fine art
- Consciousness-raising as method: art made out of group discussion and testimony
- Institutional critique aimed at museums' and academies' gender bias
Key figures
- Judy Chicago (b. 1939) — Founder of feminist art programs and creator of The Dinner Party
- Miriam Schapiro (1923-2015) — Co-founder of the CalArts feminist art program; pioneer of 'femmage'
- Suzanne Lacy (b. 1945) — Performance and social-practice artist on women's issues
- Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) — Painter and story-quilt maker of Black women's histories
- Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) — Art historian whose 1971 essay 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' founded the field
Example works
- Womanhouse — Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro (CalArts Feminist Art Program) (1972)
- The Dinner Party — Judy Chicago (1974-1979)