The Smithsonian
The Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery
1st floor 8th and F Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20001
A curatorial advisory committee reached out to a range of artists whose creative practices engage with issues of feminism, gender, and sexuality. These present-day statements offer diverse perspectives to ever-expanding conversations about feminism.
Mary Savig
Curator of Manuscripts, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Nao Bustamante
Professor of Art and Director of MFA Art, University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design
Alexandra Chang
Associate Professor of Practice, Arts, Culture and Media Department & Acting Associate Director, The Clement A Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, Rutgers University—Newark
Jaclyn Roessel
Founder, Grownup Navajo
Legacy Russell
Associate Curator of Exhibitions, The Studio Museum in Harlem
Feminist art resists easy definitions.
In 1977, feminist activists Ruth Iskin, Lucy Lippard, and Arlene Raven organized an exhibition centered on the question, “What is Feminist Art?” They invited artists to answer this question on a letter-sized piece of paper. Hundreds of artists responded in the form of collage, manifestos, drawings, and prints, providing a snapshot of the ongoing conversations around feminism in the United States.
In 2019, the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art asked this same question, “What is Feminist Art?” to some of the same women who responded in 1977, as well as a new group of artists to capture the current response.
On view are more than 75 responses from then and now. These personal statements are vibrant and varied, elucidating the contours of feminist art by complicating its origins, calling out its failures, and celebrating its achievements.
This exhibition was organized by the Archives of American Art with funding from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
