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University of California Press

Art/Women/California, 1950–2000

Parallels and Intersections

by Diana Burgess Fuller (Editor), Daniela Salvioni (Editor), Whitney Chadwick (Contribution by), Rosa Linda Fregoso (Contribution by), Jennifer Gonzalez (Contribution by), JoAnn Hanley (Contribution by), Theresa Harlan (Contribution by), Karin Higa (Contribution by), Phyllis Jackson (Contribution by), Amelia Jones (Contribution by), Carole Ann Klonarides (Contribution by), Suzanne Lacy (Contribution by), Pamela M. Lee (Contribution by), Amalia Mesa-Bains (Contribution by), Laura Meyer (Contribution by), Sandra Phillips (Contribution by), Jolene Rickard (Contribution by), Terezita Romo (Contribution by), Rosanne Allucquere Stone (Contribution by), Gail Tsukiyama (Contribution by), Judith Wilson (Contribution by)
Price: $41.95 / £35.00
Publication Date: May 2002
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 397
ISBN: 9780520230668
Trim Size: 8.5 x 10
Illustrations: 60 duotones, 53 color illustrations

About the Book

Art/Women/California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections is an unprecedented examination of the impact that specific women artists, working in California in the second half of the twentieth century, have had on broadening the definition of art. Twenty preeminent scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds investigate how the vast sociopolitical changes of the post-World War II era affected these women and how the ensuing events influenced the art that they produced. This book outlines the role these pivotal artists and their work played in reshaping the California cultural profile into what it is today.

Illustrated with more than one hundred color plates and duotones, Art/Women/California 1950-2000 reveals the richness of this fifty-year period by contrasting and comparing the artists and their varied artistic practices in relation to the larger sociopolitical context. The book employs a variety of historical perspectives to reflect the distinct and parallel experiences of California's major cultural communities while revealing points of intersection by analyzing shared themes and practices.

Because California serves as a gateway for a myriad of immigrants and an epicenter for the feminist movement, and because of its history of activism, its culture of experimentation, and its reputation for innovative technology and media, the state has evolved into a crucial and inspirational environment for women artists. Their work continues to transform our perceptions and revitalize art's connections to its surrounding environment and community. Exploring the conjuncture between place and artistic activity from multiple perspectives, this book stands as a testament to the rich diversity that is contemporary California culture.

This book is a copublication with the San Jose Museum of Art

About the Author

Diana Burgess Fuller is an editor, curator, and arts administrator. Daniela Salvioni is an art critic and curator.

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Table of Contents

Preface
Diana Fuller

Forward
Susan Landauer

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Art in Context
Daniel Salvioni

CULTURAL OVERVIEW

"I Dream I'm the Death of Orpheus"
Adrienne Rich

Reflecting on Histories as Histories
Whitney Chadwick

"Kopid'taya (A Gathering of Spirits)"
Paula Gunn Allen

Other Landscapes
Angela Y. Davis

PARALLELS
Reconsidering the Terrain: Five Historical Perspectives

"Coal"
Audre Lorde

Liberating Blackness and Interrogating Whiteness
Phyllis J. Jackson

"Yes, We are Not Invisible"
Janice Mirikitani

What Is an Asian American Woman Artist?
Karin Higa

Excerpt from "The Poet in the World"
Denise Levertov

Constructing a New Paradigm: European American Women Artists in California, 1950-2000
Laura Meyer

"To We Who Were Saved by the Stars"
Lorna Dee Cervantes

Califia/Califas: A Brief History of Chicana California
Amalia Mesa-Bains

"Revolutionary Letter #21"
Diane di Prima

Uncovering/Recovering: Indigenous Artists in California
Jolene Rickard

INTERSECTIONS / Ley Lines

Burning Down the House: Feminist Art in California
(An Interview with Amelia Jones )
Daniela Salvioni and Diana Burgess Fuller

A Collective History: Las Mujeres Muralistas
Terezita Romo

Indigenous Visionaries: Native Women Artists in California
Theresa Harlan

How The Invisible Woman Got Herself on the Cultural Map: Black Women Artists in California
Judith Wilson

INTERSECTIONS /Themes and Practices

Landing in California
Jennifer Gonzalez

Women Artists in California and Their Engagement with Photography
Sandra S. Phillips

California Filming: Re-Imagining the Nation
Rosa Linda Fregoso

Construction Sites: Women Artists in California and the Production Space-Time
Pamela Lee

Exchanges
Moira Roth and Suzanne Lacy

Women, Art, and Technology: A Brief History
JoAnn Hanley

What Do We Want? The Subject Behind the Camera: Women Video Artists and Self-Articulation
Nancy Buchanan

Epilogue

The Baby or the Bath Water; Being an Inquiry into the Nature of Woman,Womyn, Art, Time, and Timing in Five Thousand Words or Less
Allucque Rosanne Stone

List of Contributors
List of Illustrations
Index

Reviews

"This is the book on women’s art I’ve been waiting for—smart, deeply rooted, and up-to-date, with an overdue focus on women of color that fills in the historical cracks. Read it and run with it."—Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art

"More than merely beautiful and ground-breaking, Art/ Women/ California 1950-2000 is also about the enriching interventions created by diverse women artists, the effect of whose work is not only far-reaching, but has also opened up the very definition of American art. It is about intellectual interdisciplinality and the dialectical relationship between art and social context. It is about the way various California cultures—Native, Latino, Asian, feminist, immigrant, politically active, and virtual, which are so different from the trope of the Western cowboy—have intervened in that entity we imagine as ‘America.’ "—Elaine Kim, editor of Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean Nationalism

"Rich and provocative. A pleasure to read and to look at."—Linda Nochlin, author of The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity

"This book should greatly help everyone understand the remarkably diversified evolution of art in California, which is largely due to the great influx of women and the transformative effect of a new feminist consciousness."—Arthur C. Danto, author of Philosophizing Art: Selected Essays