The Role of Feminist Art Movements in the Evolution of Painting

Painting is the act and art of using the brush and other drawing tools to present and express an image or imagination to relay a message, go here. It can be done physically using a drawing board or digitally using some online apps.

Painting has evolved over time. It dates back to many years ago about 42,000 when normads used charcoal to write on caves they passed by. This is known as rock painting.

It has been described to affect the evolution of man as it is believed that painting is an expression of our inner self.

Rock painting began to gradually fade away with urbanization and agriculture, this led to paintings on ceramics, vases, artifacts, pots, etc.

Then cities were built and some palaces had various paintings and artistic expressions of people, animals, games, landscapes, etc.

In the eleventh century, painting started to become more realistic with the representation of complex images using three-dimensional depth using

vegetable pigment, with egg-based tempering amongst others, and the preferred colors are black, red, violet, and green.

Some colors were obtained from grinding some precious stones.

This became a foundation for western painting and what we call contemporary painting today.

The Romans used stone, canvas, ivory, metals, and others to express their artistic imagination through painting and drawing.

Painting is used to tell stories and inform us of history.

The feminist Art Movement came about in the 60s to re-establish the foundational pillars of contemporary art.

This movement brought about a change of attitude and a transformation in the belief of a certain gender in the aspect of arts.

The feminist movement had a groundbreaking shift in 1971 through an essay written by Linda Nochlin titled “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”

This essay kicked against the prohibition of women from achieving the same level and status as male artists.

This further led to creating opportunities for women in the art world in areas that were previously inaccessible to them.

The absence of women in the art world from time immemorial was challenged and a move was made. “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago in 1974 was a breakthrough artwork for the feminist movement, and recognition was given to female pioneers in the art world.

Judy created a banquet on a triangular table celebrating influential women from history. A gold inscription under the table reveals the names of 999 worthies of honor and celebration. 

To this day, that ceremonial banquet is being exhibited at The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and this has brought about more feminine voices calling for gender equality that has given room for female painters in all aspects of art.

In 1984 at the International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture exhibition, only 13 out of 169 artists were women, this led to Guerilla girls taking up major advertising spaces, protesting using graphic posters, print, and text forms to carry out their campaign.