Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties Author(s): Lynn Zelevansky Source: MoMA, No.

17 (Summer, 1994), pp. 14-16 Published by: The Museum of Modern Art Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4381263 . Accessed: 01/04/2014 03:24
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Sense and
Sense and Sensibility: WomenArtistsand Minimalism in the
Nineties, on viewJunei6 through September ii, presents sculpture and installations by sevenwomenwhoseart has cometo criticalattention overthelastfewyears. Theexhibition nineteen comprises works in which certain Minimalistforms and strategies-repetition,the grid, and -are recast geometry in suchunorthodox materials as cosmetics and velvet.In the essay below,LynnZelevansky, CuratorialAssistant, Departmentof Paintingand Sculpture, and organizer of theexhibition, shows how the artists in Sense and Sensibility,with their very distinct approaches, expand the formal and conceptual boundaries of both Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. Taken most narrowly,the term "Minimalism" identifies a small groupof mostly male artistswho emergedwithin the New Yorkart worldat the beginningof the I96os. But if Minimalism waslargely a male preserve, Post-Minimalism, which coalescedtowardthe end of that decade-at approximately the same time as the contemporary Women'sMovement-was in part defined by women. Post-Minimalism,which had many manifestations, from Process Art to Conceptualismand Performance, has influencedthe work in Senseand as well as much else in contemporary Sensibility, art. While maleartistsalsocreatedprecedents for a moreopen-ended application of Minimalistprecepts,Post-Minimalism-which often emphasized the artist's "touch," sometimesevokedthe "primal," and
Mona Hatoum.LightSentence. I992. Wire mesh lockers,light bulb, motor.
6' 6" x I6' 3/a" x 6' I". Courtesy the artist.

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Snow Whitt(not in exhibition).x992. PollyApfelbaum.TheDwarvesWithout Eachbox: 27 x 15x 3 2'1. Crushedstretchvelvet,fabricdye, cardboard.

couldbe emphatically hand-made-challengedthe parameters of art in a manner that paralleledcertain strategiesand goals of the Women'sMovement.Indeed, in both its historicaland contemporarymanifestations (whether created by men or women, feministsor nonfeminists)Post-Minimalist work seems to have achieveda kind of feminizingof Minimalism. The effectof the counterculture on the environmentof the late I960s, alongwith the greater flexibilityof Post-Minimalism, provided fertilegroundfor the emergenceof increased numbersof women artists,enablingwomen as a groupto influencethe artworldfor the firsttime. This wasvisiblein the criticaldialogueand in the marketplace, and it both reflectedand contributedto transformations in societyat large.Despite these changes,however,attitudesassuming women'sinferiorityas artistswere (and are) persistent;in the early I970s, women who assertedthemselvesin the art world were still labeled "unfeminine" while, ironically,such formal characteristics

14

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WomenArtistsand Minimalism in the Nineties by Lynn Zelevansky

and practicesas pale colors, fine line, decorativemotifs, and craftderivedtechniquesweredisparaged becausethey wereseen as "feminine." Significantly,by I975 women had begun to consciously exploit theseveryelementsin theirwork, and the deliberate utilization of previously disdainedmaterials and stylesgenerally associated with femininityexpandedthe boundaries of what was acceptable in serious art. The women presentedin the exhibition continue to enlargetheseboundaries. Of diversebackgrounds-fourarefromvariouspartsof the United States,one is Brazilian, one is English,andone is Palestinian, born in Lebanon-Polly Apfelbaum,Mona Hatoum, RachelLachowicz, Jac Leirner, ClaudiaMatzko,RachelWhiteread,and AndreaZittel each represent a highly individualinterpretation of the Post-Minimalistlegacy.In theirwork,Minimalistformsand strategies -repetition, the grid, geometry-are imbued with extra-artreferences. Conceptual at base, their work utilizes unconventionalmaterials, many of which have been traditionallyassociatedwith women's
activities.

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In Apfelbaum's most recentproduction, patchesof white crushed

RachelLachowicz.ColorChartFlat #I. 1993.Aluminum,eyeshadow. 48 x 47".
Collection Thomas Segal, Boston.

Names(Art). I993.Sewnplaaticbagslined with Jac Leirner.

polyester foam Two parts; each approximatelY 43/4, Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York. x i9W' x 6 4.

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velvet, which have associationsto healing and mending, become modularunits.With this portablematerial, herworksaddress sculpturalissuesconcerning spaceandscaleusually identified with weightier objects.The theatrical play of light that is intrinsicto Hatoum's installation, LightSentence (1992), is as centralto the piece as is the large,openworkmetalstructurethat is the work'sprimaryelement. Encodedwith politicaland personal meaning,Hatoum's emotionally charged environment is at once beautifulanddisturbing, threatening and seductive. Lachowiczcreates sculpturesout of cosmetics-cast lipstick, eye shadow,and face powder.Some of them parodyicons of Minimalism;but, sensualin the extreme,infusedwith desireand memory, these works are as enticing as they are satirical. Leirner accumulates largequantitiesof prosaicmaterials-empty cigarette packages, worthless currency, commercial plastic bags-and strings or sews them together into gridded floor pieces or wall
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*t

ClaudiaMatzko.Untitled (Tears) (variation of work in exhibition).I99I. Brass cups and salinesolution. Sizevariable.

hangings.Intendedas projectionsof personalexperience,they also touch on broader political and aesthetic issues. Matzko creates ethereally beautiful works that simultaneously confront timely spiritualconcerns.They social questionsand addresstranscendent visibiland immateriality, operatein the spacebetween materiality ity and invisibility. castingsof the fixtures of Knownfor her plaster, wax, and rubber Whiteread's subjects have middle-and working-class life in England, and the negative space rangedfromhot-waterbottles,old mattresses,

titled Ghost, demonstratinga shared interest in ephemerality, apparition, and the historical trace.All of theseartistsbalanceincorporealintellectualand spiritualcontent with a seeminglyparadoxical emphasis on the body, a persistent recognition of the ineluctability of sufferingand decayas well assensualityand desire. They not only accommodatethis kind of contradiction,they often heightenit by encouraging more expansivereadingsof their works. For this reason,the politicaland social analysisthat informsall of this art, in most casesand to varyingdegrees,must be deduced;it is unlikelyto be expressed baldly. Most of the artistsrepresented say that they choose to take for grantedbreakthroughs madeby women in the sixtiesand seventies. Elementsassociatedwith those aestheticdevelopmentsenter their the firstgeneration of workorganically or not at all. This is probably womenwith the freedomto takesucha position.In manycases,their not only contradiction, but also reticence,lightness, work embraces with meekness and quiet, qualitiesthat, in the past,wereassociated and a lackof power.No longerthreatened by the silenceand invisibility historically imposedupon women artists,they have accepted as partof a trathat heritage, whetherconsciouslyor unconsciously, has been made. dition. In so doing, they revealthat realprogress Sense and Sensibility:Women Artists and Minimalism in the Exhibition Fundof The Ninetiesis made possible bythe Contemporary with giftsfrom LilyAuchincloss, Museumof Modern Art, established and Mr. and Mrs.Ronald S. Lauder. AgnesGundand DanielShapiro, Arts Councilof is providedby The Contemporary Additionalfunding is supportArt. Theaccompanyingpublication TheMuseum ofModern Art. ed byagrantfromTheJuniorAssociates ofModern of TheMuseum

8' x II'7" Approximately

RachelWhiteread.Ghost. I990. Plaster on steel frame. x I0'4". SaatchiCollection,London.

beneathsinksand beds to roomsin derelicthouses,and, lastyear,to an entirehouse. Investedwith strongautobiographical content,they arealso literaltracesof the past.Zittel makesreference to such Constructivist movementsof the earlytwentiethcenturyas the Bauhaus, in orderto investigate the needfor comfortandhow it intersects with the desireforaesthetic Committedto redefining the roleof the purity. artistin society,she createsfurniture and housewares that challenge various cultural habitsandcustomsand thatarewhollycontemporary in theirambivalence, self-consciousness, and retrospective approach. Apfelbaumand Lachowiczhave both made w6rks that referto the fairytale"Cinderella," thusconfrontinga pervasive idealof femininity.Leirner, Matzko,and Whitereadhaveall createdsculptures
16

Andrea Zittel. Cover. 1993.

Wool, velvet,and linen. Fourparts;each 72 x 60". Courtesyof AndreaRosenGallery, New York. Photo:PeterMuscato,New York.

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