My Notes About the Exhibition:
The exhibition, Surface/Depth: The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro was featured at the Museum of Arts and Design. The exhibition was called "Surface/Depth" because of how Miriam Schapiro was able to use "surface" materials to describe deeper themes in her work. It was also named this because of how Miriam Schapiro inspired so many other artists part of the exhibition.
Miriam Schapiro was a trained abstract expressionist painter in New York City during the 1970's. Most of her work during this time was in acrylic and featured a lot of geometric shapes being represented in space. She eventually moved to California and became a teacher, where she noticed that women were not treated with the same respect that she was treated with in New York. Because of this, she started her journey as an educator, artist, and activist.
The art that she created as an activist was by using materials that were considered "decorative." The materials that she used were considered "crafts" and she also used domestic items as materials that you would find around a home or kitchen. She reappropriated these materials because she found artistic value in them, and also wanted to make the "womanly domestic" items into beautiful art. These materials showcased her talent for using various materials, and also highlighted femininity. The materials that she used, collage feminine related items, were put together to create, femmage. While working in this medium, she also created a manifesto, which described various subjects in women's rights.
The majority Schapiro's work featured in the show is 2-dimensional. Because of her background in abstract expressionism, I noticed that many of her work displayed referenced the kinds of geometric shapes used in her other work. In her work called, Flying Carpet, she creates a black frame around her work and collages' over it to look like the designs/patterns are going beyond the frame that she created. She also used a lot of loud colors in her work. Besides collage and paint, she also used spray paint in some of her work like, Voyage. There was also work that she created inspired by Asian art. In the works Orange Crush and Vestiture Series, she uses motifs from feminine Asian culture. In particular, Orange Crush, features an orange fan. She was so inspired by the culture that she wanted to use an object that represents femininity in Asian culture.
The material that Schapiro uses in her work advocates for women because she uses items that were "made for women" in society as art. She shows the world that not only do the materials have a place in art, but women also have a place in the art world. Schapiro is able to convey her ideas through the subject of her artwork but also because of the kinds of materials that she uses.
What I particularly admire about her work is that she is able to make kitsch materials look elegant. The way that she organizes her work compositionally puts the materials into a new concept that is interpreted as art rather than an object.
Below is a slideshow of some of my favorite work from the show:
My Essay:
The exhibition, Surface/Depth: The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro, is featured at the Museum of Arts and Design and highlights the influence that Miriam Schapiro had in art and women’s rights. Included in this exhibition are works by Schapiro and the many artists that she inspired with her advocacy and unique material usage. Through the materials that Schapiro uses in her artwork, she is able to convey ideals about women’s rights in society and the art world. Studying Miriam Schapiro’s work can expand one’s artistic repertoire regarding how to use materials, and how to represent conceptual ideas through materials characteristics.
Miriam Schapiro was an abstract expressionist painter who lived and worked in New York City during the 1950’s. While there, she worked on paintings that featured a lot of geometric shapes represented in abstract spaces. She did this by knowing how space could be changed by manipulating colored shapes and contour lines. The kind of work that she did in New York influenced the artwork that she completed in California during the 1960’s. While in California, she worked as a teacher and artist. Schapiro eventually became active in the women’s rights movement during the 1970’s. By using her talent, she started a new artistic trend called femmage, which is a combination of the words feminine and collage (wall text). These works were inspired by women’s domestic items and crafts, which she used as materials in her work to convey ideas in women’s rights.
The materials that she used in her femmage’s were considered decorative items that were made for and by women who traditionally stayed home. Such materials were not welcomed as sanctioned supplies in the art world. Many of the items that she used in her work were “…fabric remnants, embroidered handkerchiefs, crocheted doilies, lace, ribbons, buttons, dolls and doll furniture, masks, fans, [and] jewelry…” (wall text). These re-appropriated items were chosen because of their particular feminine characteristics, and also used to consider the limitations that materials have in art. Because of the preconceived uses for the objects she used as materials, she comments on expectations of women in a traditional domestic sense and as artists. By looking at her femmage’s, it is clear that she overlaps found materials and acrylic paint until she is able to create an interesting two-dimensional space. One way that she does this is by juxtaposing cutting and tearing material combined with her knowledge of geometric shapes in painting. Besides materials, Schapiro also references feminine themes by shaping her canvases into symbols that are significant in regarding women in society, such as a house, fan, or heart. Miriam Schapiro has been able to make deliberate choices with materials that shape the concept behind her work.
The work of Miriam Schapiro can be used as an example for students, of all ages, to realize the possibilities there are with any kind of material. During early childhood, students’ artistic development should be focused on building their repertoire of artistic techniques by allowing them to explore the material within their own interests. Material exploration enables children to learn “…basic concepts of how the world of objects works and also their own capacity to be effective in it” (Smith, p. 4). Interacting with materials helps younger children understand the relationship between themselves and how their actions can change their surroundings. Through exploration of materials, children can gain a basic understanding of this concept, thus aiding their artistic development.
The materials that are used in Miriam Schapiro’s work can assist students in younger grades, first through fifth, by growing their artistic repertoire. By introducing students to her work, one can learn how various studio approaches to material can create different visual effects of an artwork. Schapiro’s intention was to show how decorative materials could be considered as professional mediums, which is why she did not alter the overall integrity of the materials. Maintaining the integrity of the materials is exhibited in the work, The Beauty of Summer, because of her ability to combine collage and painting. After analyzing Schapiro’s work, students can be challenged with wondering in which ways they can change their material without the use of tools or adhesives. In this way, students will be able to explore materials just by manipulating their given characteristics. This could be useful for students because they can eventually use their knowledge of influencing materials to express meaning in their own work.
Schapiro’s work shows strength in how she uses materials to create compelling compositions and to communicate complex messages, which is why it would be advantageous to expose students to her artwork. One of the goals of adolescent artistic development is to guide a student’s repertoire of skills to use in positive self-expression. This idea is reinforced in Judith Burton’s writing, she states that “Open-ended challenges [explore] the qualities and properties of materials and their potential uses need to be carried over into activities that require the application of new understandings in re-presentational activity in relation to subject matter and content of interest to youngsters themselves” (Burton, p. 32). In other words, exploring materials give students the skills they need to investigate parts of themselves and other subjects of their interest. Adolescent artistic development is driven by changes and challenges with themselves and their relationship to the world, which makes studying Schapiro’s art advantageous in how they can begin to explore those issues.
Miriam Schapiro has a firm understanding of how materials can influence her viewers, which is why introducing adolescents to her work can help them understand how materials can call forth meaning, and apply that skill to portraying their own concepts in art. By examining her work, House of Summer’s Night, students can analyze how she not only kept the integrity of her materials but used them to communicate themes pertaining to women’s rights. Students can be challenged by using their repertoire of studio approaches to select a material and manipulate it to create their own meaning. By giving students an open-ended assignment to explore their own interests through material, they are encouraged to express themselves in this positive way.
After examination, it is clear that Schapiro made deliberate choices in choosing her materials and subjects to enforce her ideals about women’s rights, which has inspired me to combine materials in artwork to further the concept within my works. What is most interesting about her work is how she is able to make the materials she uses look like an elegant artwork, instead of kitsch decoration as they were originally purposed for. Her work not only advocates for her cause, but also supports the idea that anything can be considered a material. Knowing about Miriam Schapiro’s work can benefit ideals in art about meaning making and types of studio approaches in art.