ARTH 381 Feminism and Art History: Risk and Excess -Women Artists between the Wars (1918-1939)

• Tuesdays, 11:45am-2:15pm
• Online: Access through Moodle
• Instructor: Dr. Julia Skelly

This course will consider the work of female artists who were, and continue to be, positioned as ‘other’ in relation to male modernists. The theoretical framework for the course will be Mary Russo’s concept of the ‘female grotesque,’ a figure who exceeds gendered norms and expectations. Russo notes that the act of exceeding norms has inherent risk, and we will consider the ways in which female artists have exceeded gendered boundaries, as well as the risks and rewards that have accompanied these ostensible excesses. We will also discuss feminist art-historical scholarship that has set out to recuperate women artists, in addition to deconstructing the (masculine) discipline of art history. Issues of race and sexuality will also be central to our discussions. Throughout the term we will consider how the theoretical frameworks of ‘risk’ and ‘excess’ are productive (and/or limiting) for the study of female modernists. Readings will focus primarily on female artists working in France, Mexico, Canada, and Germany.