Art/Women/California, 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections (San Jose Museum of Art) [Hardcover]

Diana Burgess Fuller (Editor), Daniela Salvioni (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2002 | Series: San Jose Museum of Art

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

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Featuring over 100 splendid color plates and duotones and almost 20 essays by scholars from different cultural backgrounds, this is the first survey of women artists in post-World War II California and their impact on contemporary culture. Both comprehensive in scope and groundbreaking in subject matter, the essays and images fully express the diversity of current California culture. The book accompanies an exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art, which initiated this project as a strategy to redress mainstream art history's neglect of women artists and their work. Divided into two sections, "Parallels" and "Intersections," the essays explore art, history, and politics and how they fuse to inform artistic expression while also examining the changes in postwar society and their effects on art. "Parallels," which also includes poems by Audre Lorde and others, examines how artists are influenced by their separate experiences within a California context, while "Intersections" identifies artistic trends and practices within this group. Among the notable contributors are Whitney Chadwick and Angela Y. Davis. Recommended for academic libraries with collections in women or California artists and for larger public libraries.
Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The far-reaching scope of this study finds its roots in an earlier symposium, and the resulting book retraces a half-century of art produced by women in California, seamlessly linking critical understanding with social analysis in essays by art historians and scholars from diverse disciplines and cultures. During the years 1950 to 2000, art by women in the Golden State manifested concerns coursing through the Western world. Ethnic backgrounds and their impact are looked at in the book's first section, while the second part examines points where kindred themes coincide. The effects of feminism, technological breakthroughs, and political as well as societal upheavals are reflected in thought-provoking commentary and accompanying reproductions of compelling paintings, prints, and murals; photographs and stills from video and film; and documentation of performances, conceptual art, and new media. But the overriding quality captured here is an exhilarating individuality and the artistic intensity that motivates Betye Saar to create her mixed media assemblages, Ann Hamilton to conjure her complex installations, and Judy Chicago to realize her much photographed Dinner Party. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 397 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1ST edition (May 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520230655
• ISBN-13: 978-0520230651
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,229,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is This the New Academicism?, April 16, 2011

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Peter Baklava (Charles City, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art/Women/California, 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections (San Jose Museum of Art) (Paperback)

These type of art books seem to come in two varieties: 1) heavy on history and criticism or 2) overflowing with plates and reproductions. This book is in the former category, and in all honesty, it should probably have been titled "Art/Feminism/California, 1950-2000", because the art criticism is definitely slanted with a particular ideology. Prepare to stumble across rather meaningless and I think, stupidly antiquated, phrases like "the male gaze".

Nevertheless, there is a vast amount of information here. The book can be valuable, then, in a couple of ways. One can read it as a guidebook to contemporary (or at least, modern) west coast, feminist artists-- or, as an index of informed, and sometimes fearlessly politically correct art criticism. I found the segment by Amelia Jones the most entertaining and least pretentious example, partly because it comes in the form of a spontaneous interview. Most of the book seems uncomfortably bent on classifying artists according to ethnicity. Personally, I like multiculturalism, but when it becomes a matter of stuffing everyone into a category, as in "Chicanos here, Asians there", I rebel.

In fact, as scholarly and erudite as books like this one may be, they suggest that today's young female artist may face a different, but equally difficult form of "Obstacle Course", if they wish to follow the established and politically correct paradigms laid out in this book, in order to qualify as an "authentic", precedent-minded female artist.