Feminism and media

Discover how gender stereotypes from the mass media have been confronted and subverted by feminist artists in the past 50 years

The late 1960s saw a boom in the number of artists focusing on the construction of identity in the media, challenging gender roles and rewriting the male-dominated traditions of art history. One of the strategies employed by these artists was to borrow elements from popular visual culture in order to question the ways in which the female body is presented, whether as sex fantasy or ‘domestic goddess’.

Artists have also manipulated their own appearance, stressing how clothes and make-up function as a costume and dressing up to ‘perform’ gender in a way that meets or plays with social expectations. Some works highlight the ritualistic and depersonalising aspects of applying cosmetics, while others enact exaggerated gender stereotypes.

Some women artists have chosen to expose and highlight their sexuality, in order to reclaim it and transform it from an object of male desire to a creative and oppositional force. In other cases, the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’ are resisted or rejected for a more fluid and dynamic understanding of gender identity.

The International Council Gallery Consortium

Tate Modern
Natalie Bell Building Level 4 East

Getting Here

1 February – 17 July 2022

Free

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Standing Man 1962,1982

Standing Man is a typical example of Pistoletto’s Quadri specchianti or mirror paintings. It comprises a mirrored surface made of highly polished steel measuring more than two and a half metres in height. A life-sized image of a man wearing a dark grey suit and standing with his back to the viewer has been attached to the mirror. The work is intended to be hung flat on, or slightly above, the floor, enhancing its illusionistic possibilities.

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Tetsumi Kudo, Portrait of an Artist in Crisis 1980–1

Portrait of an Artist in Crisis 1980–1 is a sculptural assemblage that takes the form of a mass-produced animal cage painted a lurid green, inside which are the disembodied face and hands of a man rendered in wax. In the figure’s right hand are two paint brushes; the left hand grips a scatological form. Four smaller wire cages are suspended from the ceiling of the main structure. These contain, respectively, the small painted maquettes of a grey mouse, a yellow canary, a red heart and a yellow phallus. On top of the wax head and around the base of the cage is a tangle of multi-coloured wool and a number of smaller items including pills and coins. The original French title is written in cursive script on a small panel affixed to the front casing of the main cage; on the bottom right-hand side is inscribed the artist’s surname, each letter occupying a space between the thin wire bars

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