The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, April 06, 1972, Image 1
n M ' doily mfex$gtfo thursdcry, april 6, 1972 lincoln, nebraska vol. 95, no. 92 V Female artists-women's liberation on canvas by Jacquin Sanders For upwards of 150 years, a portrait of a serene young woman, now hanging in New York City's Metropolitan Museum, was attributed to the giant of French neo-classicism, Jacques-Louis David. Then it was discovered that the giant who painted this particular picture was actually a giantess-an almost forgotten woman named Constance-Marie Charpentier. 'The Jolly Toper' the bleary-eyed boozer who has delighted generations of visitors to Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, was considered a Frans Hals until a good scrubbing with modern cleaning fluids revealed the signature of a considerably less renowned, but perhaps equally talented woman artist, Judith Leyster. Since medieval times, art dealers have made a good thing out of the works of the productive Jacopo Tintoretto. That "productiveness" seems less formidable lately, due to well-founded suspicions that many Tintorettos may not be Jacopo 's but those of Marietta, his extraordinarily gifted but-because of her sex-much less salable daughter. Women, it would seem, have always gotten the short and of the stick in the art world-not only in &tary Corse. . Vaiket 9-foot acrylic and crushed glass. 'sketches" with sales and recognition, but also in the opportunity to develop their talent. Men have not only dominated the field, as creators and critics and museum officials; they have totally monopolized it. But a survey of the art world today shows change is in the wind. Women artists are bursting out all over. Their works are turning up in important exhibitions; the great museums are adding substantial rather than token, examples of art by women to their collections, and dealers are beginning to push their works to the buying public When he was first shown some sketches by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, renowned painter of ballet girls, was moved to a tare compliment. Ha could hardly believe, he said, that a woman had drawn such works. That's the sort of thing women artists have teen putting up with, probably since the first cave woman scrawled the first picture of a brontosaurus tending its young. But times are changing and women artists no longer put up with such remarks. More importantly, they no longer justify them. The best women artists these days do not produce "female art. Their works are neither soft nor sentimental and most certainly they are not fragile. The new woman in art has moved way beyond the gentle world of pastels and Sunday-afternoon water colors. Women's art is now fust art, indistinguishable by gender from that of inert, and unique only in the individual's intention and technique and material. Especially material. They use steel and stone and surplus Navy hardware. They weld metals and spray acrylic They use the knowledge of physics and the material of the junkyard to Tefract light rays on rusting pipe and degenerating motors. They build sculptures that people can walk into, pictures so loaded with nearly everything, including paint, that they strain the very beams of the museum walls they hang upon. Even their language is the language of the artist, neither man-talk nor woman-talk, only the special argot peculiar to all artists these days. Mary Corse, for example, stopped painting at the age of 22, convinced that she had gone as far as possible in the medium of Rembrandt and 1 Greco. "I just felt there were no more paintings to be done, she says. She turned to a medium of her own, using Plexiglass and hidden light sources, and then, sensing that she was into technology rather than art, went hack to painting. Wow she is 25 and her 9-foot square "sketches,' made with a mixture of acrylic and crushed glass, have been 'exhibited in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, and she is selling them regularly and for good prices. Despite her success, Mary Corse finds some discrimination against her sex among dealers. 'Some of them think a woman will paint until she has children and then give it up," she notes. But being married and having a year -old baby has only made her more of an artist. "My baby has just made everything better," she says. 'The baby has kept my head straight, and when your head is straight you paint better. The best women artists have a toughness about their male counteroarts. At 24. a former high-school cheerleader. hung in New York's Guggenheim now support herself by painting. New York now. and gives drawing ass at the University of Rochester. moved, too. She began wrfli an started to build corner pieces and confronted the viewer." them, just as do Harriet Korman. has already been Museum and can She works in and sculpture c& Her work has floor-painting, th "which expanded "My involvement with plastic has a kind of attraction-repulsion effect," she says. The material is repulsive but the form is intriguing." Best known of the young American women artists is Nancy Graves. 31. Her materials include hide, glue, wax, marble dust and steel, and her sprawling constructions are a blend of sculpture and painting. Louisianabom Lynda Benglis is more of a militant. "Women have less ambition," she says, "because they've been taught to have less. But this is an exciting time to be a woman and I think there's a change in attitude in men because of the women's movement." Turn to Page 3 V: 11 fisncy Grswss. . - has worked with csnrtef sculptures, bones and now does pointiiiist-type paintings. Gazette criticizes expedient politics Another low-budget newspaper, The Lincoln Gazette, popped up in Lincoln Tuesday. The two-page mimeographed sheet expressed views of TMU Regent Robert Prokop, amnesty, student life insurance plans and drug busts. According to Ron Kurtenbach, a member of the "editorial board," the paper "hopes to fill a void created by the Lincoln dailies and the Daily Nebraska n." Kurtenbach maintained the Daily Nebraskan was guilty of "political expediency, capricious editing and being very impersonal in style. "If we can't step outside of our professional roles and candidly criticize each other, then this society is suspect," he said. "It seems that truth seeking is not being rewarded. Kurtenbach said the Daily TMebraskan "seems to be subject"to pressures like advertising, student fee concerns and job security which "tend to distort" the news. He said the student paper should have followed up on what he called "Prokop 's plagiarism." Said Kurtenbach: "No reporters went to ZumbergeVarner or any of the other regents and asked them what they thought of the situation." An article in the Gazette's first issue stated: "No one denies or doubts that Regent Robert J. Prokop plagiarized his article on homosexuality in Aim Batdielder's Douglas County Gazette but there has been great confusion among students and townspeople about what the regents or the faculty will do about the fact" The article was authored by staff members Larry Wolf ley and Jay Palashek. Kurtenbach said the staff members have political opinions that range from "generally liberal to radical." He said further the paper was "not going to provide a forum for YAF (Young Americans for Freedon) people." Fellow staffer Lia Johanson said "contributions from YAFers would be welcome." Johanson added that many people working with the paper are also involved in the Peoples Community Coop, which hopes to form a community center that will allow open exchange of ideas. i u