Openings
A Memoir from the Women's Art Movement, New York City 1970-1992
Will be published approx. on 25. October 2016
Book
Hardback
410 pages
978-1-61332-042-6 (ISBN)
Description
A candid and generous color-illustrated account of women artists creating politically and personally effective art works, exhibitions, and actions over two tumultuous decades
This abundantly illustrated personal narrative takes readers through twenty-two years of activism in the women's art movements in New York City during a period of great cultural change. Author Sabra Moore vividly recounts life in this era of social upheaval in which women artists responded to war, racial tension and reconciliation, cultural and aesthetic inequality, and struggles for reproductive freedom. We learn intimately how she and fellow women artists found ways to create politically and personally effective art works, exhibitions, actions, and institutions.
The book features Moore's involvement in pivotal art organizations of this time and her own development as an artist, counterbalanced with her connections to family in rural East Texas and friends in New Mexico. Moore was a member of the Heresies Collective, an influential feminist activist group, became editor of their art and politics journal Heresies, and was president of the NYC/Women's Caucus for Art. She helped coordinate and curate many of the earliest large-scale exhibitions of women artists in NYC, including Views by Women Artists (1982), and the collaborative shows Reconstruction Project and Connections Project/Conexus. Moore was a principle organizer of the 1984 demonstration against MoMA over their lack of inclusion of women artists and was a member of various groundbreaking collaborative arts groups in the 1970s, including Atlantic Gallery and WAR (Women Artists in Revolution).
While Openings is an historical narrative of women artists' actions, organizations, and ideas, it also candidly describes their periods of challenge, including the death of sculptor Ana Mendieta and the indictment of her husband and the author's own attempted murder by her former art teacher.
The book is illustrated throughout by a treasure of 950 color and black & white images of the art from this momentous period: a valuable collection that is concurrently being archived by Barnard College along with papers, letters, show cards, posters, original artworks, and other documents.
This eye-opening book includes forewords by renowned art critic Lucy Lippard and poet/activist Margaret Randall.
This abundantly illustrated personal narrative takes readers through twenty-two years of activism in the women's art movements in New York City during a period of great cultural change. Author Sabra Moore vividly recounts life in this era of social upheaval in which women artists responded to war, racial tension and reconciliation, cultural and aesthetic inequality, and struggles for reproductive freedom. We learn intimately how she and fellow women artists found ways to create politically and personally effective art works, exhibitions, actions, and institutions.
The book features Moore's involvement in pivotal art organizations of this time and her own development as an artist, counterbalanced with her connections to family in rural East Texas and friends in New Mexico. Moore was a member of the Heresies Collective, an influential feminist activist group, became editor of their art and politics journal Heresies, and was president of the NYC/Women's Caucus for Art. She helped coordinate and curate many of the earliest large-scale exhibitions of women artists in NYC, including Views by Women Artists (1982), and the collaborative shows Reconstruction Project and Connections Project/Conexus. Moore was a principle organizer of the 1984 demonstration against MoMA over their lack of inclusion of women artists and was a member of various groundbreaking collaborative arts groups in the 1970s, including Atlantic Gallery and WAR (Women Artists in Revolution).
While Openings is an historical narrative of women artists' actions, organizations, and ideas, it also candidly describes their periods of challenge, including the death of sculptor Ana Mendieta and the indictment of her husband and the author's own attempted murder by her former art teacher.
The book is illustrated throughout by a treasure of 950 color and black & white images of the art from this momentous period: a valuable collection that is concurrently being archived by Barnard College along with papers, letters, show cards, posters, original artworks, and other documents.
This eye-opening book includes forewords by renowned art critic Lucy Lippard and poet/activist Margaret Randall.
Reviews / Votes
"Openings puts you right there-at the heart of the passion, brilliance, and creative chaos of the feminist art uprising . . . an intimate and soulful glimpse into a critical epoch." - Chellis Glendinning (author of My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization) "The writing is so fluid and honest . . . it really hasn't been done before." - Lucy R. Lippard (Art critic and activist) "This is important reading for aspiring women artists today, and evidence that the received history of the feminist movement . . . is not always the full picture." - Artist, Professor of Art, University of Southern California, Roski School (Suzanne Lacy) "[Openings is] crucial to the understanding of women artists in New York . . . it really captures what it must have been like to be an artist in New York in the 70s and 80s." - Patricia Hills (Art historian and Professor Emerita, Boston University) "Moore's memoir is radical not only because it frames feminist art history as central, but also in its very telling, where monumental events in the art world stand equal to Moore's personal life, her dreams, and her poetic tenderness." - Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (playwright, creator of My Little Red Book, and co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project) "Deeply complex and vivid." - Moira Roth (Trefethen Professor of Art History, Mills College)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
950 color illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 191 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-61332-042-6 (9781613320426)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sabra Moore is an artist, writer, and activist. After moving to New York City in 1966, she became an integral creative force within the feminist art movement.
Lucy R. Lippard is a contemporary art historian, curator, writer, and activist. As a critic, Lippard is best known for her study of conceptual art in Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972 and for her writing on feminist art and politically engaged art. She has published more than twenty books, organized some fifty exhibitions, authored numerous articles, and co-founded Heresies: A Journal of Art and Politics, as well as the artist's-book center, Printed Matter. She has helped form numerous political and cultural groups, including the Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee and the Art Workers Coalition. She played a key role in the development of Conceptual Art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s and in the Feminist Art movement. In more recent years she has focused her work on the landscape, culture, and art of the American Southwest, where she moved in the 1990s. Her many honors include the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.
Margaret Randall is a poet, writer, translator, photographer, and activist who has lived in New York, Mexico City, Havana, Cuba, Managua, Nicaragua, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with short stays in North Vietnam and Lima, Peru. Her time in these places often coincided with major sociopolitical upheavals or pivotal historic moments. She edited an important bilingual literary magazine for eight years out of Mexico City and has known some of the great minds of her generation. When she returned to the United States, the US government ordered her deported because of opinions expressed in some of her books, and she was forced to wage a five-year battle for restoration of citizenship. Her correspondence with those she met along the way makes for exciting reading.
Randall is the recipient of numerous international awards and the author of over 200 books, four of which were published by New Village Press: My Life in 100 Objects, Artists in My Life, Risking a Somersault in the Air, and Luck.
Lucy R. Lippard is a contemporary art historian, curator, writer, and activist. As a critic, Lippard is best known for her study of conceptual art in Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972 and for her writing on feminist art and politically engaged art. She has published more than twenty books, organized some fifty exhibitions, authored numerous articles, and co-founded Heresies: A Journal of Art and Politics, as well as the artist's-book center, Printed Matter. She has helped form numerous political and cultural groups, including the Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee and the Art Workers Coalition. She played a key role in the development of Conceptual Art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s and in the Feminist Art movement. In more recent years she has focused her work on the landscape, culture, and art of the American Southwest, where she moved in the 1990s. Her many honors include the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.
Margaret Randall is a poet, writer, translator, photographer, and activist who has lived in New York, Mexico City, Havana, Cuba, Managua, Nicaragua, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with short stays in North Vietnam and Lima, Peru. Her time in these places often coincided with major sociopolitical upheavals or pivotal historic moments. She edited an important bilingual literary magazine for eight years out of Mexico City and has known some of the great minds of her generation. When she returned to the United States, the US government ordered her deported because of opinions expressed in some of her books, and she was forced to wage a five-year battle for restoration of citizenship. Her correspondence with those she met along the way makes for exciting reading.
Randall is the recipient of numerous international awards and the author of over 200 books, four of which were published by New Village Press: My Life in 100 Objects, Artists in My Life, Risking a Somersault in the Air, and Luck.