Blog Post 7

To me reclaiming the female body away from masculine objection meant for women to be their own entity and not one that only existed by being connected to a man. In so many ways throughout history and today women are still looked at a compared to men even in their artwork. One quote that stood out to me was “This is so good that you would not know it was done by a woman” stated by Hans Hofmann about Lee Krasner’s artwork. It is statements such as the one above that shows how women needed to reclaim their bodies and be their own person and not one that is constantly compared to man.
In many ways african american artists could have used the same phrase. In many ways slavery was not discussed at all in art at that time, and slavery would address any african american female personally. They were not only looked at as objects that men possess but also objects that could be bought and sold. De-colonizing the female body would also mean to they that they would be free to make their own decisions without anyone telling them what decisions to make.
The slogan “the personal is political” means that the experience of one woman would be applicable to all other women at the time. This slogan became very real for the feminist artists of the seventies. Prior to this time the social agenda, even though it was found in the art, was hidden or ignored. At time time the social agenda became very apparent and the art changed focus to focus on the experiences of the individual as related to the whole. Women quickly became the subject of the art rather than the object and began to redefine the female identity. The artists at this time began to ask themselves who they were and how they would define themselves and this started the change in the social and political views of women.