Feminist art is an art category associated with the feminist movement of the late sixties and seventies. Feminist art highlights the social and the political. Feminist art highlights the social and political differences that women experience in their lives. The goal of this art form is to bring positive and comprehensive change to the world, leading to equality or liberation. The media used range from traditional art forms, such as painting, to more unorthodox methods, such as performing art, conceptual art, body art, craftsmanship, video, film and fiber art.
Feminist art has served as an innovative driving force to broaden the definition of art by incorporating new media and a new perspective. Inspired by the social changes of the 1960s, feminist art began as a movement that connected activism, social policy and art. Feminist artworks addressed issues related to patriarchy, gender roles, household chores, racism, misogyny, racism, the beauty industry, and pop culture. There was an increase in the number of active women's liberation groups during the sixties that focused on women's problems, which also influenced the social landscape in which an artistic movement such as feminist art could flourish.
Dadaist performances inspired the birth of performing arts, which were a frequently used medium in feminist art. Feminists rejected the idea that art made by men was superior to art made by women artists and moved away from modernist ideals. Two feminist authors, Griselda Pollock and Rozsika Parker, wrote extensively about the division into spheres of higher and lower art. Along with Miriam Schapiro, Chicago created the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1971. Chicago's famous feminist artwork teaches us about the history of forgotten women and introduces us to forms of art that weren't considered feminine.
Another characteristic of the feminist art movement was the frequent use of vaginal images, sometimes referred to as vaginal art. Although works of art focused on the female experience in the world existed before the feminist art movement began, during the 1970s feminist art was defined and articulated. The Perks of Being a Woman Artist, by Guerrilla Girls Since the 1980s, The Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous collective of feminist artists, has used performing arts to highlight racial and gender disparities in the art industry. Later, Chicago and Miriam Shapiro created the Feminist Art Program (FAP) at the California Institute of the Arts.
The feminist art movement of the 1980s and 1990s was based on the foundations laid by the previous feminist art movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Feminist art supports this statement because it began to challenge previously conceived notions about women's roles. Feminist art represented a departure from modernism, where art made by women was classified in a different class than works made by men. This image, which addresses the role of religious and historical iconography of art in the subordination of women, became one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement.
