HALF THE PICTURE
Vision of women artists
Taking cues and title inspiration from a 1989 poster by the Guerrilla Girls that reads “You’re seeing less than half the picture without the vision of women artists and artists of color,” Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection at the Brooklyn Museum presents more than 50 artists through an intersectional feminist lens.
On view through March 31, the exhibition delves into the last 100 years, highlighting work that was created in response to some of the most crucial social and political moments in the U.S.—from World
War I to the civil rights movement and, most recently, the #MeToo movement.
“The number of women and artists of color in museums and galleries is better than it was in 1989 when we did the poster, but not anywhere near Half the Picture. We are still fighting to make museums tell the real and diverse story of our culture—not just the white male part,” say the Guerrilla Girls, a gorilla-mask clad feminist activist
group that’s been fighting for equality in the art world since the 1980s.
Much like the Guerrilla Girls, the artists featured in Half the Picture share common ground, using art as a tool to advocate for their communities, their beliefs and their goal for equality across race, class and gender.
Featured in the exhibition are Vito Acconci, Sue Coe, An-My Lê, Yolanda López, Park McArthur, Zanele Muholi, Dread Scott, Joan Semmel, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, Mickalene Thomas, Adejoke Tugbiyele and Taller de Gráfica Popular—to name a few.
A handful of the works in the exhibition are on view for the first time, including two works from Beverly Buchanan’s best-known series of shack sculptures and Isabelle, Lefferts House, Brooklyn, 2016, by Nona Faustine, in which Faustine positions herself in front of the Lefferts homestead, a historic colonial farmhouse built by a family of slaveholders, which still stands in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York.
For the first time in an American museum, a work from Betty Tompkins’ controversial Fuck Painting series will also be on view.
Among the exhibition’s other highlights are group of woodcuts from the 1920s by Käthe Kollwitz that depict the lives of women during the horrific aftermath of World War I. Other noteworthy works include Dara Birnbaum’s video Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978/79); Renee Cox’s photograph Yo Mama, 1993; Harmony Hammond’s Hunkertime, 1979-80, a large-scale sculpture featuring a number of heavily wrapped ladderlike forms arranged closely to evoke a supportive sisterhood; and 1880 Crow Peace Delegation, a series by Wendy Red Star featuring historical photographs overlaid with annotations that illustrate the stereotypes and appropriation of Native Americans often found in mainstream pop culture.
“The exhibition focuses on work that feels both meaningful and relevant in relationship to current politics and conversations about feminism, by artists of varied backgrounds, approaches and intersecting identities,” explains the exhibition’s co-organizer Carmen Hermo, who is an associate curator at Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
“The power of the Guerrilla Girls lies in their funny, concise and biting graphic work, made to rally support and inspire action on behalf of a cause, to combat stereotypes and dominant narratives,” adds the exhibition’s other organizer Catherine Morris, the Sackler Senior Curator at Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. “Presenting the equally compelling work of over 50 other artists, Half the Picture explores how artists get the rest of us to pay attention.”