Upon examining women artists throughout history and their impact on art today, it is equally as important to recognize women artists of today. It is important to recognize those who came before them and paved the way for women to have a voice and presence in the art world. We chose to discuss three women artists who represent the times we are in and who also send a message(s) through their art. Through the countless women artists we could pick from today, first we looked at Lavett Ballard, a college educated Black woman who uses her history in order to display 'themes of History, Colorism, Afro-futurism, and Feminine Beauty; translating to visual narratives of people of African descent'. These conversations are still happening and her art provokes them as well from her installations and media she decides to use such as literal hair which does carry a type of body politic for Black women.
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| Hair Stories- "For All the Little Girls"- Levott Ballard |
Another artist we looked at who in our social media driven world uses Instagram as her platform to share her illustrations is Polly Norton, known as Polly Nor. This London based 29 year old artist uses her own female experience in conjunction with those of her followers/friends, female anxieties, and sexuality to illustrate 'women and their demons' essentially. She has now had three exhibitions, has been featured in many magazines, and still consistently posts her illustrations on her Instagram. She addresses topics people do not normally talk about in regards to women through illustration of women's bodies, naked, shedding their skin, which also lends to the female gaze vs. male gaze conversation, which we discussed way in the beginning of class. It is interesting to see how she uses social media as her platform for these issues and is able to share her art with literally any and everyone.
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| "You Don't Know Him Like I Do"-Polly Nor |
The last artist we researched was Annie Lebovitz who used photography as her tool of choice, photographing many famous people and those photographs still being very famous today. Leibovitz began her career as chief photographer at Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, a position she held for ten years before branching out on a solo career. Her work became known for the intimate moments she seemed to capture with subjects, such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, capturing a moment that represented their relationship, and turned out to be the last photo ever taken of Lennon. She also uses texture to create not only drama but also interesting backgrounds and surroundings, which project the subjects in a way that's almost about to tell a story.
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| John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1980- Annie Leibovitz |
Zadia Portillo, Deja Stith, Xiangnan Xu
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