Seductive Subversion
We have a special fondness for our neighbors at the University
of the Arts, not least because it's our venerable founder's alma
mater. So we were especially pleased that an exhibit that began in
three modest sized galleries on Broad Street has grown into
something of an international sensation.
Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958 - 1968 is
the first major
exhibition of female Pop artists of the era. It's quite a
reclamation project - planned over the course of four years, a
majority of the work has not been shown in over forty.
The usual pop concerns are in play, with a heavy emphasis on the
complexities of female iconography in mass culture. The art is on
the whole great, if a little roughly hewn. Gems abound - Idelle
Weber's stark geometries and silhouettes, the provocative (if a
little strident) photo-montages of Martha Rosler, and Dorothy
Grebenak's hooked wool rugs of Tide boxes and Bugatti logos.
Marjorie Strider's Green Triptych balances genuine
sexiness and wry commentary in equal measure, not an easy dynamic
to pull off.
Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof's Artblog has a nice write up about
the show
here. The show went on to the Brooklyn
Museum and is now touring internationally. The catalog is
available
here. Check it.
Martha Rosler, Family Portrait with Car, 1966-72,
Chryssa, Ampersand IV, 1965
Rosalyn Drexler, Home Movies, 1963
Marjorie Strider, Green Triptych, 1963
Joyce Wieland, Young Woman's Blues, 1964