Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women 1947-2016

by Elizabeth Smith, Anne Wagner, Paul Schimmel (Editor)

Accompanying the most comprehensive exhibition of postwar abstract sculpture by women artists to date, Revolution in the Making traces the ways in which women artists deftly transformed the language of sculpture in the 20th Century. The volume teases out multiple strains of proto-feminist practices, characterized by abstraction and repetition, which rejected the singularity of a so-called 'masterwork'. Divided into four sections, the book features approximately thirty artists and nearly 100 works in the postwar era (the late 1950s) including such historically important predecessors as Ruth Asawa, Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Claire Falkenstein, and Louise Nevelson; the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting a generation of post-minimalist artists who ignited a revolution in their use of process-oriented materials and methods; the 1980s and 1990s, the period that moved beyond three-dimensional objects toward architectonic works characterized by structure and design; and post-2000 works by artists who created installation-based environments, embraced domestic materials and adopted craft as an embedded discourse.

Genres: Art

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 21, 2016

Reviews

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

Seeing the opening show at Hauser Wirth & Shimmel in LA shifted something vital inside me. My art practice, still in formation, took a new turn toward materiality. The joy I experience in making found validation.

Now, reading the essays of the exhibit catalog and looking at images of the artwork with which I shared space, I remember that happy, defining day. Thrilled to have access to a copy!

[Mills College Library]

730 R4548 2016