Wack!: Art and the Feminist Revolution

by Lisa Gabrielle Mark

There had never been art like the art produced by women artists in the 1970s--and there has never been a book with the ambition and scope of this one about that groundbreaking era. WACK! documents and illustrates the impact of the feminist revolution on art made between 1965 and 1980, featuring pioneering and influential works by artists who came of age during that period--Chantal Akerman, Lynda Benglis, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Valie Export, Mary Heilmann, Sanja Ivekovič, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, and others--as well as important works made in those years by artists whose whose careers were already well established, including Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Lucy Lippard, Alice Neel, and Yoko Ono.

The art surveyed in WACK! includes work by more than 120 artists, in all media--from painting and sculpture to photography, film, installation, and video--arranged not by chronology but by theme: Abstraction, "Autophotography," Body as Medium, Family Stories, Gender Performance, Knowledge as Power, Making Art History, and others. WACK!, which accompanies the first international museum exhibition to showcase feminist art from this revolutionary era, contains more than 400 color images. Highlights include the figurative paintings of Joan Semmel; the performance and film collaborations of Sally Potter and Rose English; the untitled film stills of Cindy Sherman; and the large-scale, craft-based sculptures of Magdalena Abakanowicz.

Written entries on each artist offer key biographical and descriptive information and accompanying essays by leading critics, art historians, and scholars offer new perspectives on feminist art practice. The topics--including the relationship between American and European feminism, feminism and New York abstraction, and mapping a global feminism--provide a broad social context for the artworks themselves. WACK! is both a definitive visual record and a long-awaited history of one of the most important artistic movements of the twentieth century.

Essays by:
Cornelia Butler, Judith Russi Kirshner, Catherine Lord, Marsha Meskimmon, Richard Meyer, Helen Molesworth, Peggy Phelan, Nelly Richard, Valerie Smith, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Jenni Sorkin

Artists include:
Marina Abramovič, Chantal Akerman, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Jay DeFeo, Mary Beth Edelson, Valie Export, Barbara Hammer, Susan Hiller, Joan Jonas, Mary Kelly, Maria Lassnig, Linda Montano, Alice Neel, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Orlan, Howardena Pindell, Yvonne Rainer, Faith Ringgold, Ketty La Rocca, Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Betye Saar, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, and Hannah Wilke.

Genres: Art, Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Art History, Gender Studies, Gender

Paperback

First published March 2, 2007

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

i like how valerie solanas is mentioned like, 8,000 times. right on.

[Ivy Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2006, I went to see the WACK exhibit on my feminist spring break vacation! I took the Amtrak alone to LA and San Diego (where I saw Sister Spit tour), excited to see this exhibit at LA's MOCA and it was incredible. The depth, vision, nuance and rage mind blowing. There were pieces of the infamous Woman House,amazing old film and video installations such as the artful, public funeral held in front of the Los Angeles City Hall for the women murdered there in the 1970's and more. I walked around in wonderment, hoping that what I was witnessing would rub off on me and that I could take it home and let it inform my work as an artist in the 21st Century. It definitely has and I highly recommend this catalog to those who did not get a chance to see WACK.

[Rebecca Waring-Crane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catching up with the foremothers with this collection of essays and images. Especially helpful/interesting to me as I consider and develop my grad ideas—The Woman Who Never Was: Self-Representation, Photography, and First-Wave Feminist Art by Abigail Solomon-Godeau.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in the acknowledgements, so I'm biased!

[Mari hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!!!! Inspiring! Makes me want to run out into the street and punch some (deserving) person in the face.

[Lisa Lenarz]

A must for contemporary artists.

[elka]

From a pile of books a curator returned at the library, I unearthed this catalog. And the earth stood still, and I remembered seeing that show.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good stuff, wish I'd been able to see the exhibition. I bought it online - via abebooks, and I can't set a finished date because it's not a novel and I keep looking at it.

[Katie]

For class

[William West]

Cool exhibit of 1970s feminist art at PS1 in Queens, NY.