WACK! at the National Museum of Women in the Arts - Last Chance!

As TNG’s resident art guru, I plan, in the coming weeks, to begin including more posts about art in the District, from profiles of gay artists to reviews of major shows. Since I write about art for a few other places, some of these reviews will be modified versions of articles that have appeared elsewhere. Should any of our readers have knowledge about art, and wish to help me post about it more regularly, please email me at amy@thenewgay.net.


There’s still time to see “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution,” a large-scale presentation of “feminist” painting, video, photography, sculpture and performance art at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The 300 works in the exhibit illustrate the period between 1965 to 1980 with alarming diversity — the range of subjects depicted, mediums encountered, and ideas conveyed is vast, and the exhibit is a terrific introduction to feminist art. The exhibit closes on Sunday, December 16.



Judy Chicago, "Pasadena Lifesaver Red #5" (Courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts)



Visitors are encouraged to explore the exhibit in any order they choose, which suggests that feminist art is circular, with artists returning to the same themes, adding new insight each time. The art in the show is in your face and explicit — the vagina is everywhere. Whether seen through an inversion of the “male gaze” with a “female gaze,” or in Judy Chicago’s vagina-inspired paintings, female anatomy is everywhere, and it is celebrated.

A number of lesbian artists have work on display, with Barbara Hammer, Harmony Hammond, Tee Corinne and Nancy Grossman among them. Their works acknowledge sexuality as unfixed and fluid.

Some of the artists included here didn’t call themselves feminists, and the exhibit brings together divergent ideas about feminism. It succeeds in representing different versions of feminism and explaining the politics behind various movement.

It's only on display in Washington for four more days, but it's really an eye-opener, particularly for those who didn't live through this era in women's history.