Mothers of Invention: The Feminist Roots of Contemporary Art

Mothers of Invention explores the influence of feminist ideas on the work of contemporary artists, highlighting the impact of feminist artists on the art world. It demonstrates how feminist artists have shaped ideas such as environmental vulnerability, activist art, the challenge of high technology, and the development of a new language of abstraction.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 04 March 2024
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd

Rewritten text:

Offering a groundbreaking retelling of the history of contemporary art from a feminist lens, four esteemed authors delve into the genealogies of performance, abstraction, craft, and ecofeminism, unveiling the profound indebtedness of these vital genres to the pioneering work of women artists. Tracing these influences across time, Mothers of Invention underscores the immense impact of feminist ideas on the work of contemporary artists of all genders.

The painters, sculptors, and performance artists showcased herein have wielded considerable influence in shaping the prevailing ideas that dominate the art world today: the vulnerability of the environment, the ascendance of activist art, the challenge to the dominance of high technology (including digital culture), and the emergence of a new language of abstraction. By dismantling the linear narrative of modernism, privileging a white male ethnocentric perspective, demarcating high and low art, and separating art from broader social concerns, feminist artists laid the foundation for the globalized, multi-media, postmodern art world we witness today.

Illustrated with a diverse array of artwork spanning the past sixty years, accompanied by contextual discussions of earlier practitioners, this book makes a compelling argument for centering feminist art and artists at the very heart of contemporary art.

Weight: 762g
Dimension: 176 x 247 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781848225404