National Art Education Association

Women Also Created ArtAuthor(s): Enid ZimmermanSource: Art Education, Vol. 34, No. 3 (May, 1981), p. 5Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192484 .

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Women Also Created Art

Enid Zimmerman

W hen I was an art student in New York's Music and Art

High School, in the late 1950's, I was fortunate to study art history in some depth. But the textbook I used did not contain a single reproduction of an art work by a woman artist. In fact, all of the art history textbooks used in in- troductory courses in my college, such as Janson's History of Art, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, and Gombrich's The Story of Art, failed to list or show art work by woman art- ists. Even art history courses at more advanced levels were similarly negli- gent. Therefore, until Ibegan to study at the master's level, I was ignorant of art work produced by women throughout history. Unfortunately, the exclusion of women's art from art textbooks and materials used in class- rooms is still common today. An art print series, recently made available from the National Art Education As- sociation, contains 100 reproductions of works of art from both Western and non-Western cultures, yet amazingly not a single art work by a woman art- ist is included.

Woman artists, until recently, have been excluded from participation in and popularization of the world of art; they have been ignored by art histo- rians and art critics alike. In the ex- treme, art work by women has even been incorrectly attributed to male contemporaries, rather than recog- nized as art by women artists. The

women's art movement is presently involved in rescuing women artists from obscurity and in creating a more supportive working climate for women artists. Within the past dec- ade, a number of books have been published about women artists who worked from the early middle ages to the present time. As an art educator, artist, and active supporter of the women's movement, I am aware that this movement has not had a great im- pact on the art materials, art textbooks, and art curricula used in our schools. Those who are preparing to be art teachers, and those who are teaching art, are generally unaware of the history of women's art and unpre- pared to integrate women's art into the mainstream of art curricula in the schools.

We are all aware that talent has been distributed to men and women alike; both men and women create art and have throughout the centuries. It is very important that we, as art teachers, help dispel the stereotyped image of the artist as a white male from Europe or the United States. Furthermore, isolated study of a brief unit about women's art would not necessarily teach students that art created by women is an important as- pect of the story of art. Women's art should be studied historically, and the accomplishments of major women art- ists, throughout the ages, should be taught to students as a significant con- tent in our art classrooms. Women art- ists should be studied in terms of their lives, modes of working, personal re- ports about their art work, and their creations, as is routinely done with major male artists.

Once art teachers, and those who prepare-students to become art teachers, become conscious of the need to include women's art as an in- tegral part of art curricula, decisions about how to study women's art be-

come paramount. Early in my teach- ing career, I had to challenge my own stereotyped attitudes about women creating art. I discovered that it was impossible to prove popular claims that artistic features such as delicate brush work, pastel colors, use of con- centric images, and domestic tech- niques such as weaving and sewing should primarily be associated with the work of women artists. I came to view the concept of women creating "feminine" art as a prejudiced point of view. Women making art for all people, judged according to generally accepted aesthetic standards, is a more viable and equitable educational concept. Students should learn to un- derstand that both men and women use "feminine" or "masculine" con- tent in their art work, work with small intimate forms or large monumental ones, and use fabric or stone in their production.

It is important that art teachers, who have the opportunity to choose art textbooks, art reproductions, art slide sets, and other curriculum mate- rials for their classes should con- sciously review available materials with a view towards equitable inclu- sion of art work by women in their art curricula. To effect change, we should encourage and support those organi- zations that include women's art work in the materials they produce, and we should educate those that do not so that omissions may be corrected. It is our responsibility as art teachers to provide our students with a view of the artist, creating his or her work, free of societal steieotypes. Then a new generation of students will be educated toward understanding and appreciating art created by all mem- bers of society.

Enid Zimmerman is assistant profes- sor of art education at Indiana Uni- versity at Bloomington.

Art Educatcon May 1981 5

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