OLLI 0618 - Great Women Artists: 1500-Present
Course Description
Through careful exploration of a select group of exemplary women artists, this introductory art history course traces key developments and themes explored in Western art from around 1500 to the present with the question of the artists’ gender in mind. Together we will explore the barriers and expectations women artists faced, the subjects they worked, how their work compares with their male contemporaries, the role of women patrons and other such questions. Illustrated lectures anchor the course, but discussion is at all time encouraged.
Session One: Setting the Stage: from Mannerism to Neo-Classicism
After a brief overview of the historical roles women have played in the arts from prehistory to the Renaissance, this session explores the work of women artists starting in the Mannerist period of Italy (c. 1520-1600) through Baroque and Neoclassicism (early 19th C). Notable artists include: Anguissola, Fontana, Robusti, Gentilleschi, Leyster, Kauffman, Vigeé-Lebrun and Labille-Guiard.
Session Two: Women Artists and Modernism
This session examines the contributions of women artists during the modern period, addressing the shifting roles of artists, the collapse of Academic hegemony, the relations of women’s subjects and tensions concerning traditional gender roles and other such questions. Key artists include: Bonheur, Cassatt, Morisot, Becker, Kollwitz, Delauney, and O’Keeffe.
Session Three: The Historical Avant-Garde, High Modernism and Early Feminist Arts
This session explores the work of women artists of Dada, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, then introduces the role of feminism in relation to art of the 1960s. Key artists include: Hoch, Cahun, Oppenheim, Krasner, Frankenthaler, Ono, Schneemann, Edelson, and Schapiro.
Session Four: Postmodern and Contemporary Women Artists
This session explores the work of some of the most notable and influential artists from 1970 to the present. Key artists and themes include: identity politics, institutional sexism, postcolonialism, Lacey, Kruger, Sherman, Saar, Piper, Weems, Abakanowicz, and contemporary artists of the Pacific Northwest.