Australian Feminist Art Timeline

Contents

Australian Feminist Art Timeline lists exhibitions, artists, artworks and milestones that have contributed to discussion and development of feminist art in Australia. The timeline focuses on the impact of feminism on Australian contemporary art. It was initiated by The View From Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism, an exhibition and publishing project held at West Space as part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival.[1]

1960s

1967 Exhibition: Vivienne Binns, Watters Gallery, Sydney. The exhibition of paintings and sculptures showing symbolic representations of genitalia was considered outrageous at the time.[2]

1967 Artwork: Vivienne Binns, Vag dens, 1967, synthetic polymer paint and enamel on composition board. Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.[3]

1970s

1970 Germaine Greer publishes The Female Eunuch

1974 Exhibition: A Room of One's Own: Three Women Artists Ewing Gallery, University of Melbourne, co-curated by Kiffy Rubbo, Lynne Cooke and Janine Burke Artists: Lesley Dumbrell, Julie Irving, Ann Newmarch

1975 International Women's Year

1975 American feminist writer Lucy R. Lippard conducts Australian lecture tour.

1975 Exhibition: Australian Women Artists: 1840-1940, Ewing Gallery and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne; Art Gallery of NSW; Newcastle Region Art Gallery; Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Janine Burke.

1975 Victorian Women's Art Movement founded [2]

1975 Women's Art Register established in Melbourne. One of the founders was painter Erica McGilchrist.

1975 Artwork: Ann Newmarch Vietnam Madonna

1975 Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women's Liberation established, edited by Carole Ferrier (1975-present)

1975 Women's Studies Resource Centre established, Adelaide, South Australia

1976 Launch of Melbourne-based art journal LIP A Journal of Women in the Visual Arts (1975–1983).

1976 Women's Art Movement established, Adelaide, South Australia [4]

1978 Artwork: Ann Newmarch, Women hold up half the sky! 1978

1978 Exhibition: The Women's Show, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide

1978-80 Performance: Lyndal Jones, The At Home Series, performances in the series held at La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne, RMIT, Melbourne, 110 Chambers Street, New York

1980s

1980 Artwork: Davida Allen painted her sexual fantasy pictures of actor Sam Neill. While the paintings followed in the tradition of the Burt Reynolds nude centrefold in Cosmopolitan in 1972, in 1980s Australia the artist raised eyebrows for depicting a man as a sex object.

1980 Performance: Bonita Ely, Bread Line, Anzart, Christchurch, New Zealand[5]

1980 Performance: Bonita Ely, Murray River Punch, George Paton and Ewing Gallery, Melbourne University. Women at Work, a festival of women's performance art.

1980 Performance: Jill Orr, Split- Fragile Relationships, George Paton and Ewing Gallery, Melbourne University. Women at Work, a festival of women's performance art.

1980 Women at Work : a week of women's performance, June 1980. George Paton and Ewing Gallery, Melbourne University. Artists included Jill Orr and Bonita Ely.[6]

1982 Betty Churcher appointed Dean of the School of Art and Design at Melbourne's Phillip Institute of Technology, she is the first female head of an Australian tertiary institution.[7]

1982 Rosalie Gascoigne is the first female artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale

1983 Janine Burke's Joy Hester published.

1984 Artwork: Julie Rrap, Persona and Shadows (series), 1984, photographic collage

1985 Project: Coordinated by Carolyn Lewens and five photographers from Lewen's TAFE women's photography course, Prahran Neighbourhood House women's photography project, 1985, photographic panels documenting the activities of women at the Neighbourhood House under certain themes including child-care, after school activities, home environments and porttraits.[8]

1987 Betty Churcher appointed Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, she is the first female director of a state art gallery.[9]

1987 Exhibition: Feminist Narratives, George Paton Gallery, curated by Juliana Engberg. Artists: Pat Brassington, Debra Dawes, Leah MacKinnon, Andrea Paton, Ann Wulf.[10]

1988 Exhibition: Judy Chicago (American) The Dinner Party (1979), Melbourne Exhibition Buildings.[11]

1989 Artwork: Something More by Tracey Moffatt.

1990s

1990 Betty Churcher appointed director of the National Gallery of Australia (1990–1997), she is the first female director of the gallery.[12]

1991 Exhibition: Frames of Reference: Aspects of Feminism and Art, Artspace, Sydney, curated by Sally Couacaud.
Artists: Kathy Temin, Susan Norrie, Vivienne Binns, Rebecca Cummins, Anne MacDonald [13]

1991 Manifesto: VNS Matrix (Virginia Barratt, Francesca da Rimini, Juliane Pierce, Josephine Starrs), Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century, Adelaide. [3] The manifesto was distributed on street posters around Adelaide. VNS Matrix was an artist collective founded in Adelaide and active 1991-1997. VNS Matrix is pronounced 'Venus Matrix'.[14]

1992 Exhibition: Feminisms: An Exhibition of 27 Women Artists, PICA, Perth, curated by Nikki Miller.

1992 Caroline Chisholm's likeness on the Australian 5 dollar note replaced by portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

1994 Exhibition: The Women's Show, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

1995 Exhibition WWWO : Wollongong Worlds Women Online, first national Australian online women's group exhibition, featuring the first or early digital works from 30 women including Francis Dyson and Mez Breeze. Curators Melinda Rackham, Louise Manner, Ali Smith, Sandy Indlekofer-O’Sullivan.[15]

1995 National Women's Art Exhibition, simultaneous exhibitions in over 147 galleries, museums and libraries.[16] [17]

1995 Exhibition: VNS Matrix: ALL NEW GEN, (VNS Matrix: Virginia Barratt, Francesca da Rimini, Juliane Pierce, Josephine Starrs), ACCA, Melbourne. Part of the National Women's Art Exhibition.

1995 Exhibition: In the Company of Women: 100 years of Australian women's art from the Cruthers Collection, PICA, Perth, curated by Sarah Miller. Part of the National Women's Art Exhibition.

1995 Exhibition: Bur-ran-gur ang (court out): Women and the law, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, curated by Annette Pedersen. Part of the National Women's Art Exhibition.

1995 Exhibition: Out of the Void: Mad and Bad Women, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, touring Queensland. Part of the National Women's Art Exhibition.

1995 Exhibition: Girls Girls Girls, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, also Orange Regional Gallery. Women's show to mark the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations, Year of the Woman.

1995 Beyond the Picket Fence: Australian women's art in the National Library of Australia, National Library of Australia [18]

1996 Lynne Cooke, first female artistic director of the Biennale of Sydney

1996 Manifesto: VNS Matrix (Virginia Barratt, Francesca da Rimini, Juliane Pierce, Josephine Starrs) Bitch Mutant Manifesto, Adelaide.

1996 Exhibition: Women Hold Up Half the Sky: the Orientation of Art in the Post-War Pacific, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, curated by Roger Butler.
Artists: Micky Allan, Vivienne Binns, Kate Daw, eX de Medici, Diena Georgetti, Joan Grounds, Helga Groves, Indulkana Community, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Narell Jubelin, Maningrida Arts, Banduk Marika, Ann Newmarch, Margaret Preston, Thancoupie, Kelly Thompson, Utopia Batik, Toni Warburton, Judy Watson, Robin White [19]

1996 Exhibition: Inside the Visible, Boston: ICA/ MIT: Kanaal Art Foundation, and Touring to Whitechapel, London, and PICA, Perth, Australia, curated by Catherine de Zegher (USA)[20]

1997 Ann Newmarch first living female artist to be given a Retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia The Personal is Political in 1997.

1997 Exhibition: Difficult Territory: a postfeminist project, Artspace, Sydney, curated by Kristen Elsby [21]

1999 Guerrilla Girls brought to Melbourne by RedPlanet for screenprinting workshops and lectures. [22]

1999 Australian feminist art historians Joan Kerr & Jo Holder publish Past present : the national women's art anthology[23]

2000s

2003 Australian feminist academic Germaine Greer publishes The Beautiful Boy.

2004 Artwork: Mary Lou Pavlovic Liar! Public Art, Melbourne

2004 Death of Gabrielle Pizzi, widely admired dealer in contemporary aboriginal art.

2004 Death of Joan Kerr (1938-2004), Australian art historian

2006 Exhibition: Feminist Actions, Spacement, Melbourne, curated by Veronica Tello.
Artists: Andrew Atchison, Pia de Bruyn, Sue Dodd, Sarah Lynch, Alex Martinis Roe, Ali Sanderson, Jessie Scott

2007 Exhibition: Bird Girls, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, curated by Kate Daw and Vikki McInnes.
Artists: Fiona Abicare, Jessie Angwin, Cate Consandine, Danielle Freakley, Kate Just, Simone Slee, Andrea Tu

2007 Forum: Feminism Never Happened, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne.
Panelists included: Julie Rrap, Alex Martinus Roe, Ann Marsh, Lily Hibberd, Felicity Coleman, Lyndall Walker, Emily Cormack

2007-8 Exhibition: Julie Rrap: Body Double, MCA, Sydney, curated by Victoria Lynn [4]

2008 Exhibition: Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye developed by the National Museum of Australia and shown at the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan.

2008 Exhibition: Lauren Berkowitz/ Starlie Geikie, Neon Parc, Melbourne, curated by Rebecca Coates.[24]

2008 Exhibition: A Time Like This, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne.
Curated by Samantha Comte, Jirra Lulla Harvey, Kate Rhodes and Meredith Turnbull.
Artists: Louisa Bufardeci, Bindi Cole, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Eliza Hutchison, Wietske Maas, Kate Smith, Salote Tawale, Annie Wu.

2008 Exhibition: Emily Floyd, Temple of the Female Eunuch, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.

2008 Exhibition: Girls, Girls, Girls, Carlton Hotel, Melbourne, curated by Lyndal Walker and Nat Thomas.[25]

2008 Australian feminist academic Elizabeth Grosz publishes Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth.[26]

2008 Essay: On Rage by Germaine Greer, academic, social commentator and collector of Aboriginal art.

2008 Nicole Kidman names her child after arts patron Sunday Reed (1905 - 1981).

2008 CoUNTess blog launched. Blog compiles and reviews gender equality in the Australian art-world. [27] [28]

2010 Exhibition: Feminism Never Happened, IMA, Brisbane.
Artists: Del Kathryn Barton, Pat Brassington, Kirsty Bruce, Jacqueline Fraser, Anastasia Klose, Fiona Lowry, Fiona Pardington, Yvonne Todd, and Jemima Wyman [5] [29]

2010 Exhibition: The View From Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism, West Space, Melbourne. Curated by Clare Rae and Victoria Bennett.
Artists: Jessie Angwin, Kiera Brew Kurec, Brown Council, Madeleine Donovan, Mariam Haji, Hannah Raisin, Jessie Scott, Hayley Forward and Jessica Olivieri with the Parachutes for Ladies.
Writers: Emilie Zoey Baker, Laura Castagnini, Tamsin Green, Anna Greer, Rachel Fuller, Jo Latham, Dunja Rmandic, Daine Singer, Nella Themelios.

2010 Death of Eva Breuer, at the time one of the major dealers of secondary market Australian paintings. Breuer was one of the few dealers stocking works by notable, lesser known twentieth century female Australian artists: Bessie Davidson, Margaret Cilento, Janet Cumbrae Stewart, Margo Lewers, Jean Bellette, Dorrit Black, Lina Bryans, Nora Heysen, Mirka Mora, Florence Rodway, Jane Sutherland.

2010 Exhibition: The Feminist Salon Group, The Envelope Residency, The West Wing, West Space Project Site, Melbourne. Coordinated by Caroline Phillips and Sarah Lynch. A week long residency by a group of artists and writers engaged with reading and discussing feminist texts, in particular the work of Luce Irigaray. The residency included performance, film, visual art, sound, reading, discussion and a lecture by Dr. Louise Burchill. Participants included Sharon Billinge, Dr. Louise Burchill, Victoria Duckett, Catherine Evans, Janice Gobey, Kate Hodgetts, Kate Just, Anastasia Klose, Angie de Latour, Sarah Lynch, Valentina Palonen, Caroline Phillips, Hannah Raisin, Caroline Thew, Inez de Vega and Jane Whitfid.

Art historians in the field of Australian feminist art

Jude Adams
Caroline Ambrus
Barbara Bolt
Janine Burke
Anita Callaway
Lynne Cooke
Elizabeth Gertsakis
Janda Gooding
Germaine Greer
Elizabeth Grosz
Pat Hoffie
Jo Holder
Jeanette Hoorn
Caroline Jordan
Anne Kirker
Sandy Kirby (-2011)
Joan Kerr (1938-2004)
Kate MacNeill
Anne Marsh
Catriona Moore
Juliette Peers
Helen Topliss
Anna Voigt

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ^ http://inside.nextwave.org.au
  2. ^ Anne Kirker in Delia Gaze (ed) Dictionary of women artists, Volume 1 (Fitzroy Dearborn: USA, 1997), p.262
  3. ^ http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=116421&PICTAUS=TRUE
  4. ^ http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1034b.htm
  5. ^ Juliana Engberg, 'Breadline: Women and Food', ArtlinkVol19, No4, Australia.
  6. ^ Women at Work : a week of women's performance, exhibition catalogue (George Paton Gallery: Melbourne, 1980)
  7. ^ Betty Churcher appointed
  8. ^ Moore, A. (1991) "Indecent Exposures: Twenty years of Australian Feminist Photography", St Leonards: Allen and Unwin.
  9. ^ http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/churcher/
  10. ^ Juliana Engberg, Feminist Narratives, exhibition catalogue, (George Paton Gallery: Melbourne, 1987)
  11. ^ Kate MacNeill, 'When historic time meets Julia Kristeva's women's time: the reception of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in Australia' Outskirts, Vol 18, May 2008, online at http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/outskirts/archive/volume18/macneill
  12. ^ http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/churcher/bio.html
  13. ^ Frames of Reference: Aspects of Feminism and Art(exhibition catalogue. Australia: Sydney: Artspace, 15 Aug-29 Sept 1991)
  14. ^ [1]
  15. ^ Site lost, some documentation at http://www.library.uow.edu.au/archives/digital/alumni/UAlumni1995Spring-Summer.pdf
  16. ^ Jo Holder (ed) The national women's art exhibition : a great collaborative exhibition, (Uni of NSW COFA: Sydney, 1995)
  17. ^ Joan Kerr & Jo Holder (eds) Past present : the national women's art anthology, (Craftsman House: Sydney, 1999)
  18. ^ http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/fence/picket.html
  19. ^ Women Hold Up Half the Sky: the Orientation of Art in the Post-War Pacific (Melbourne, Victoria: Monash University Gallery, 1996)
  20. ^ Catherine de Zegher (Ed.)Inside the Visible An Elliptical Traverse of 20th Century Art in, of, and From the Feminine, MIT: USA, 1996
  21. ^ Difficult Territory: a postfeminist project, exhibition catalogue (Australia, Sydney: Artspace and Woolloomooloo, Visual Art Centre, 1997.)
  22. ^ Merren Ricketson, Australian Women's Art Register - The Bulletin, 30 August 1999
  23. ^ Joan Kerr & Jo Holder (eds) Past present : the national women's art anthology, (Craftsman House: Sydney, 1999)
  24. ^ Rebecca Coates, Neo-neo feminisms, catalogue essay, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2008
  25. ^ Emily Cormack, review 'Girls, Girls, Girls,' Artlink, Vol29, No1, Australia
  26. ^ Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth (Columbia UP: New York, 2008)
  27. ^ Melissa Miles, Art Monthly, "Whose Art Counts?" Issue 224, 2009 http://www.artmonthly.org.au/article.asp?contentID=850
  28. ^ Sarah Rodigari Interviews CoUNTess Runway, Issue 18, 2011 http://www.runway.org.au/issues/issue18.htm
  29. ^ http://artabase.net/exhibition/2181-feminism-never-happened

External links