Renegotiating the Body

What makes art ‘feminist art’? Although feminist artists do have a unique aesthetic, there can be no essential feminist aesthetic, argues Kathy Battista in this exciting new art history. Domesticity, the body, its traces and sexuality have become prominent themes in contemporary feminist practice but where did these preoccupations begin and how did they come to signify a particular type of art? Kathy Battista’s (re-)engagement with the founding generation of female practitioners centres on 1970s London as the cultural hub from which a new art practice arose. Emphasising the importance of artists including Bobby Baker, Anne Bean, Catherine Elwes, Rose English, Alexis Hunter, Tina Keane, Hannah O’Shea, Kate Walker and Silvia Ziranek and examining works such as Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document, Judy Clark’s 1973 exhibition Issues, Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy and Cosey Fanni Tutti’s Prostitution, shown in 1976, Kathy Battista investigates some of the most controversial and provocative art from the era.
This book not only deals with the ‘famous’ art events but includes analysis of lesser-known exhibitions and performances and explains why so much feminist art has been both marginalised in art history and grossly under-represented in institutional archives and collections.