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This page gives bibliographic information about timelines in histories of feminist art.

If you can cite the details of other timelines of the history of women's art exhibitions and the history of the women's art movement from different countries, please send these to: ktpress@ktpress.co.uk

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Timelines of Feminist Art

Q: What is a timeline ?

A: A linear chronology, often used in art history to map out the relationship between exhibitions and events in social and political life. A timeline is often used to indicate the development of an avantgarde group through meetings, exhibitions and political actions.

Q: Where are the timelines for the women's art movement and feminist art practices since 1970 ?

A: See the bibliographic references given below for different histories of the women's art movement in several different countries. If you can add to this list - or have done similar unpublished research in your own country, please contact the editor and share your knowledge.

Introduction

Feminist art histories of the contemporary women's art movement and the history of exhibitions of women's art have repeatedly documented the relationship of the women's art movement to events and actions in the Women's Liberation/ feminist movement since the 1970s. The publication of books, the holding of exhibitions, conferences and political actions have all informed these early accounts and Timelines. One characteristic of this picture has been the building of, what are in effect, "national" pictures of feminism, based on events in major towns and cities in one specific country. Until feminism develops a greater knowledge of events in different parts of the world, any understanding of feminism as an international phenomenon will remain partial and run the risk of reinforcing an implicit "nationalism". The information on this page is designed to encourage researchers to expand their horizons beyond their national borders and to encourage a trans-national dialogue within feminism about the relationship between feminist histories in different parts of the world. See, for example, about performance art, the extensive Re.act.Feminism database or Gabriele Schor's exhibition and catalogue: The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970's (Prestel, 2016)

The Timeline is only a graphic indication of the emergence of events - but as Alfred J.Barr's plan of the progress of modern art written in 1935 for the new Museum of Modern Art in New York indicated - it can have quite dramatic effects in framing our understanding of the progress of avantgarde movements for museums and for cultural knowledge. Below are only ones currently known to the editor, from a handful of countries:- Australia, Canada, Germany, Taiwan, UK, USA.

Viewers are invited to add to this list any other useful resources from any other country or email comments to the editor which critique any of the timelines referred to here - for their omissions, their emphases and their accuracy - these comments will be posted as they come in - onto this page.

Australia

Barbara Hall 'The Women's Liberation Movement and the visual arts: a Selected Chronology, 1969-1990' in Catriona Moore (ed) Dissonance: Feminist and the Arts 1970-1990 (Australia: Allen and Unwin, Artspace,1994)

J. Kent (ed) Setting the Pace: The South Australian Women's Art Movement 1980-1983 (Adelaide: South Australian Women's Art Movement, 1984) events of 'W.A.M activities, 1980-1983' pp.111-117; Jane Kent 'Herstory of W.A.M. 1976-1983' pp.88-92.

Wikipedia have published an Australian feminist art timeline. Click here.

Contemporary Art and Feminism have published a timeline of feminist art in Australia.

Canada

Carol Williams 'A Working Chronology of Feminist Cultural Activities and Events in Vancouver, 1970-1990' in Stan Douglas (ed) The Vancouver Anthology: The institutional Politics of Art (Vancouver: Talon Books, 1991)

France

Nathalie Ernoult has produced a chronology of art and society events for feminists since 1900. It has a focus on France, but includes key events in different European countries and the USA. See the catalogue for elles@centre pompidou (Paris: Centre Pompidou 27 May 2009-21 Feb 2011) pp.337-369.

Germany

Irene Below 'Die Utopie der Neuen Frau setzt die Archäologie der alten voraus' in Anne Schülter/Ingeborg Stahr (eds) Wohin geht die Frauenforschung? (Germany: Köln and Austria:Wien, Böhlau, 1990) pp.101-125.
(This text lists art events, exhibitions, initiatives in the woman's art movement in Germany from 1969 to the late 1980s with an extensive booklist of publications from Germany)

For a cultural timeline of the feminist movement and cultural developments in Germany see:

'Die Autonome Frauenbewegung, 1968-1980' in Viktoria Schmidt-Lisenhoff, Detlef Hoffmann, Almut Junker, Sabine Kübler, Roswitha Mattausch Frauenalltag und Frauenbewegung 1890-1980. (Frankfurt, Historisches Museum exhibition catalogue. Basel: Stroefeld, Frankfurt am Main: Roter Stern, 1981)

'Chronik des Vereins der Berliner Künstlerinnen, 1867-1992' in Carolya Muyser (ed) Profession ohne Tradition: 125 Jahre der Verein Berliner Künstlerrinnen (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie,1992) pp.426-463 - A listing of women's art organisations in Berlin and their activities, 1867-1992.

Mexico

Monica Mayer Si Somos Muchas Y No Somos Machas: Una recopilación de textos periodísticos sobre mujeres artistas de Mónica Mayer. Ediciones al Vapor, 2001.

María Araceli Barbosa Sánchez 'LA PERSPECTIVA DE GÉNERO Y EL ARTE DE MUJERES EN MÉXICO (1983-1993)'. Phd Thesis. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. División de Estudios de Posgrado. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2000

New Zealand

Timeline of Feminist Art Movement in New Zealand on Wikipedia

Russia

The second part of the catalogue of Zen d’Art: The History of Gender and Art in Post-Soviet Space, 1989-2009 (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2010) offers a detailed dossier of all feminist and women's art exhibitions in Russia 1989-2009.

Spain

Mujeres das Visuales Artes/Women in the Visual Arts' had published a twentieth century/twenty-first century chronology of feminist art activities internationally to provide a context for specific developments in Spain and in Spanish. (now off-line) Their website, biennale, magazine are great resources for Spain.

Taiwan

Elsa Chen 'Reading Feminist Dimensions of Contemporary Art in Taiwan' in Binghui Huangfu Text and Sub-Text: Contemporary Art and Asian Women (Singapore: LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, 2000) pp.75-87.

(Table 1: p.75 lists exhibitions of women artists held in Taiwan from 1989-1999)

Mind and Spirit : Women's Art in Taiwan (Taiwan: Taipei Museum of Fine Art, 18 April-9 Sept 1998, curator:Ying-Ying Lai. Text in Chinese, except English summaries)

(This chronology links Taiwanese developments to European developments across the 20th Century)

UK

Margaret Harrison 'Notes on Feminist Art in Britain, 1970-1977' Studio International vol. 193, no.987, 1977.

R. Parker and G. Pollock Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Art Movement, 1970-1985 (London,Pandora/ RKP, 1987). Dossiers section, chronologically republishes texts from the women's art movement in the UK.

see online chronology of the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain, 1965-1979. Produced online by Feminist Archive North in 2006. First draft: November 1996 as a paper publication of the Feminist Archive Bradford (Now Feminist Archive North)

USA

Jenni Sorkin and Linda Theung produced a Selected Chronology of all-women group exhibitions, 1943-1983 for WACK! : Art and the Feminist Revolution (Los Angeles: MOCA, 2007, toured to New York and Vancouver) curator: Connie Butler. This is an international list but it does focus strongly on documenting exhibitions in America.

Carrie Rickey 'Timeline: A Highly Selective Chronology, 1970-1990' in Norma Broude and Mary Garrard The Power of Feminist Art : Emergence,Impact and Triumph of the American Feminist Art Movement (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994)

Woman's Building online timeline - from the exhibition - Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building, Otis College of Art and Design, October 1, 2011 - February 26, 2012. and on the Woman's Building website.