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Girls and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection

May 24, 2008 – July 20, 2008

painted illustration of four scenes with humans based on the four seasons
Nancy Mladenoff, Four Seasons, 1997. Fabric paint, commercially-printed and stitch-joined fabric, 56 1/4 x 74 1/4. Purchase, through funds from Ron and Sheila Endres, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
painted illustration featuring two pool chairs, a row of trees in pots, a fountain, and birds. the scene is framed by stage curtains.
Hollis Sigler, I Thought I Was In Paradise , 1995, oil on canvas with painted frame, 32 x 36 inches. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Gift of the artist.
print illustration showing a vanity with a broken mirror in an outdoor scene with bare trees on either side. in the background is the sun peaking from behind clouds or mountains.
Hollis Sigler, I Find Hope on the Horizon of My Tomorrows…, 1997. Lithograph, 22 x 30 inches. Gift of the Madison Print Club, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
abstract illustration of a person's waist
Christina Ramberg, Untitled #13, 1981. Acrylic on masonite, 14 3/4 x 11 inches. Gift of Howard and Judith Tullman, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Overview

Girls and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection examines the legacy of feminism in art through paintings, photographs, and prints from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Through thoughtful and ground-breaking works, the exhibition examines female bodies, icons, and language, as well as the underlying system of sexism that has affected so many artists. Girls and Company uncovers issues that continue to confront artists, while also posing the question: what does it mean to be a feminist artist today?

Among the artists in the exhibition are the Guerrilla Girls, a collaborative activist group founded in 1985. Members of the group adopted the names of famous women artists and wore gorilla masks to hide their identities; this strategy effectively ensured that the discussion they stirred would be about issues, not their personal careers. With their distinctive graphic sensibilities and bold use of language, the Guerrilla Girls created awareness of discrimination in the art world and beyond.

Works by the Guerrilla Girls on view in Girls and Company were included in Urban Images, a 1989 exhibition at the Madison Art Center (now MMoCA). Another work from Urban Images that will be included in the current exhibition is Curb Your Animal Instincts by the New York-based artist Ilona Granet. This painted metal sign incorporates graphic sensibilities and a social message in a work of high art.

One of two male artists in the exhibition, documentary photographer Nicholas Nixon, may be best known for his series titled The Brown Sisters. In the work shown in Girls and Company, titled St. Petersburg, Florida, he focuses his lens on a group of adolescent girls. The young women in the photograph seem empowered as they stare back at the camera, self-aware beyond their years.

Other artists included in the exhibition are Diane Arbus, Joan Brown, Jenny Holzer, Mary Laird, Jin Lee, Marisol, Lev T. Mills, Nancy Mladenoff, Frances Myers, Anne Noggle, Christina Ramberg, Miriam Schapiro, Cindy Sherman, and Hollis Sigler.

Exhibition Support

Generous funding for Girls and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection has been provided by Holly Cremer Berkenstadt; Joe and Margo Melli; a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin, and the Art League of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.