Review

A few reflections from CAA 2010

During my brief stay in Chicago last week for the College Art Association annual conference, it was impossible to miss the exciting presence of feminist concerns running throughout the sessions, exhibitions, and affiliated societies.

Anna Shteynshleyger, "Father and Son," pigment print, 2004-2009. Shteynshleyger's works were on display at the Renaissance Society through February 14, 2010. Image: courtesy of The University of Chicago

On an organizational level, there were meetings of the standing CAA Committee on Women in the Arts, the National Women’s Caucus for Art, and The Feminist Art Project. Do these societies overlap in their concerns? Yes. Are they worthy organizations? Certainly. Is it entirely clear how each group differs from the other? Not exactly. All seek to promote the interests of women and gender issues in art, some from the inside (CWA) and others from the outside (WCA for years has had a separate but concurrent conference, or Confab). The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) promotes itself as a national initiative that celebrates both the Feminist Art Movement and the political, cultural, and aesthetic impact of women in art and art history.

All three societies organized related conference sessions, some of which were standing-room only. CWA organized two sessions, “Old Women, Witches, and Old Wives” and “International Perspectives on the Legacy of American Feminist Art and Art History.” Women’s Caucus for Art, in additional to their separate-but-equal conference, organized “Investigating the Need for Women’s Art Galleries, Exhibitions, and Organizations” as well as “The Power of the Image: The Studio Artist and Civil Society.” Another unknown-to-me organization called Coalition of Women in the Arts hosted a session on regional women artists, while TFAP sponsored an entire day of fabulous sessions on Saturday. Organized by KC’s own Maria Buszek, the panels ranged in topics from the idea of feminist painting to collaborations in the work of artists and curators to expositions by trans and gender-variant artist on their relationships to feminism. Of all these related and overlapping organizations, TFAP seems, based on sheer attendance numbers and demographic, the most attractive to young feminists just coming of age.

Emma Bee Bernstein, "Self-portrait In Red Rose Dress In Green Garden," archival inkjet print, 17" x 22", 2007. "Emma Bee Bernstein: Masquerade, A Retrospective" is at DoVA Temporary in Chicago through Februrary 27, 2010. Image: courtesy of DoVA Temporary

In addition to the formally organized sessions related to feminism, gender concerns ran through a number of other panels as well. Heather Belnap Jensen and Temma Balducci co-chaired an engaging session on “Women, Femininity, and Public Space in Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture,” re-thinking the widely accepted idea of separate spheres (women/private, men/public). When heavy-hitter Griselda Pollock stands up to take issue with the premise of the panel, it’s sure to be a lively Q&A!

Anna Shteynshleyger, "Masha," pigment print, 2004-2009. Shteynshleyger's works were on display at the Renaissance Society in Chicago through February 14, 2010. Image: courtesy of The University of Chicago

Off-site, there was a strong feminist presence through many of the exhibitions organized in conjunction with the conference. The WCA organized From the Center: Now! (to which I intended to submit work but completely blew past the deadline), bringing in Lucy Lippard to jury the entries. Katherine Griefen of New York’s A.I.R. Gallery co-organized, with Laura Letinsky, Emma Bee Bernstein: Masquerade, A Retrospective at DoVA Temporary, showcasing the all-too-brief career of a young feminist photographer.

The most striking works I saw were the large-scale photographs at the sparsely attended (thanks in part to CAA printing the completely wrong address in the conference program) Renaissance Society reception for Anna Shteynshleyger. After several years out, Shteynshleyger returns with a strong, cohesive body of work that makes reference to her quest to locate herself within an Orthodox Jewish community, and then to re-locate that self within and without the community following familial upheaval.

Of course, it wasn’t really all about the ladies at CAA, but then, neither is feminism exclusively about women.

-re-

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