‘OTHER’ AND ‘NOT-ALL’, RETHINKING THE PLACE OF THE WOMAN ARTIST IN ‘CONTEMPORARY ART’

Authors

  • Katy Deepwell Middlesex University and Editor at n.paradoxa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/regac2014.1.11

Abstract

This paper addresses the ways in which women artists in modernism were frequently marked as “exceptional” and “other” to mainstream configurations of modern art (until the 1960s) and how in debates about globalisation (since then) their very strong presence had come to signify a “not-All” – an unremarkable event, something to be eliminated from view, debate or discussion - even though for the first time in history women’s presence in the art world was nearing 40-50% of all exhibitors and women artists were most commonly taken to be the symptomatic examples of contemporary art. The transitional moment of both feminism and postmodernism is eclipsed in these constructions and debates about globalisation which use this distinction with modern art and thereby conveniently ignore feminism and postmodernism. Women artists become framed in a transnational and multicultural “Otherness” and the symptomatic example of contemporary art and globalisation for this reason and specifically without reference to feminist debates.The paper identifies a very important contrast in the reception of women artists as the first configuration (exceptional, rare, and “other”) continues to affect media and popular perceptions of women artists, while the actual remarkable and truly exceptional reality of the normalisation of women artists goes unremarked upon – i.e. is wiped from public consciousness and debates about globalisation in academic circles (a “not-All” to the dominant symbolic order – using a Lacanian concept of Zizek’s).

Author Biography

Katy Deepwell, Middlesex University and Editor at n.paradoxa

Katy Deepwell is an art critic and lecturer, based in London.
She founded n.paradoxa online in December 1996 and established the printed version as a biannual publication in January 1998, published by KT press.

From August 2013, Katy Deepwell is Professor of Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism at Faculty of Art and Design, Middlesex University.

Katy Deepwell was Reader in Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism and Head of Research Training for the University of the Arts, London (September 2004 - September 2010).
Sept 2008-June 2009, she was on research leave as a Leverhulme Research Fellow.

Katy Deepwell wrote her PhD on 'Women Artists in Britain between the Two World Wars' (London, Birkbeck College, 1991). This is the subject of her latest book:
'Women Artists between the Two World Wars' (Manchester University Press, 2010)

Her MA is in the Social History of Art (Leeds University, 1986) and her BA (Hons) in Fine Art (Painting) (St Martins School of Art and Design, 1985).

She was Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Fine Art at University of Ulster, Belfast, November 1999-January 2003. She has worked as a lecturer in art theory and twentieth century art history at a number of different colleges in Britain: Oxford-Brookes University (1995-1996 & 1997-1998); Goldsmiths' College (1989-1995); West Surrey College of Art and Design (1993); Kent Institute of Art and Design (1986-1992) and at the Art History Dept, University of Copenhagen (Oct-Nov 1998).

She was Chair of the Executive Committee at Women's Art Library, 1990-1994. From 1997-2000, she was President of the British Section of the International Art Critics Association (AICA), a UNESCO non-governmental organisation. 2001-2013, she was in the Irish Section of AICA, and after 2013, she rejoined the British Section.

She has been critic-in-residence at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (July/August,1999); Nordic Art Centre, Suomenlinna, Finland (August 2000); and for 2 months at Die Hoege, Germany (2003).

From April 2004-March 2006, she was an International Advisory Board Member for Museum of Contemporary Art, Kumamoto (CAMK) in Japan.

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