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Pattern and Decoration was a United States art movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D" [1] [2] or as The New Decorativeness. [3] The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. [4] The movement was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Hudson River Museum in 2008. [1] [5]
The Pattern and Decoration movement consisted of artists, many of whom had art education backgrounds, who had been involved with the abstract schools of art of the 1960s. The westernised, male dominated climate of artistic thought throughout Modernism had led to a marginalisation of what was considered non-Western and feminine. [6] The P&D movement wanted to revive an interest in minor forms such as patterning which at that point was equated with triviality. The prevailing negative view of decoration was one not generally shared by non-Western cultures. [7]
The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. [1]
These artists also looked for inspiration outside of the United States. The influence of Islamic tile work from Spain and North Africa are visible in the geometric, floral patterns. They looked at Mexican, Roman, and Byzantine mosaics; Turkish embroidery, Japanese woodblocks; and Iranian and Indian carpets and miniatures. [1]
Although the source materials have a nostalgic appeal, the treatment of these sources is modernist. Ben Johnson describes the paintings thus: "Pattern and Decoration did not distinguish between background and foreground, nor did it emphasize specific aspects of the composition. Rather, much as the abstract paintings of the time, it covered the canvas from edge to edge in an all-encompassing design. At the outset of the movement, Pattern and Decoration artists reacted against the severe lines and restrained compositions of minimalism. Yet, they often retained the same 'flattening grid' frequently employed by Minimalist painters." [8]
Some work fitting into the P&D movement could be considered applied art. [9] P&D artists worked in a variety of media beyond painting. One of Joyce Kozloff's major early works was an installation called "An Interior Decorated." It included ceramics, a hand-painted-tile floor, silkscreened wall hangings, and lithographs. The piece was installed in the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. [10] [11]
In addition to his lush paintings and collages of flowers, Robert Kushner created ornate costumes that were used in performance events. [12]
Many P&D created collages by decontextualizing and recombining disparate elements to form new meanings. Miriam Schapiro invented the term "femmage " to describe a combination of painting and sewing techniques. She embellished the painted canvas with traditionally female work such as embroidery, cross-stitch, and quilting. [13]
Aside from physical assemblages, artists borrowed snippets from other cultures and sources; therefore collage was crucial to the movement's concept. Critics like Anne Swartz use this recombination of source materials as evidence that the Pattern and Decoration movement is an early example of postmodernism. [5]
The P&D artists enjoyed a period of critical and financial success; their works were much sought-after and widely collected in both America and Europe. From the 1980s on, however, it was largely dismissed by critics. [1] The reason for the backlash are multifarious and open to debate. NYT critic Holland Cotter offers the following explanation: "Art associated with feminism has always had a hostile press. And there was the beauty thing. In the neo-Expressionist, neo-Conceptualist late 1980s, no one knew what to make of hearts, Turkish flowers, wallpaper and arabesques."
In 2008 the Hudson River Art Museum in Yonkers, NY arranged a major exhibition entitled "Pattern and Decoration: An Ideal Vision in American Art, 1975-1985," which sought to reestablish its reputation as a serious movement. Curator Anne Swartz asserts that at the time audiences were uncomfortable with the unapologetic sensuality: "I suspect that until recently, a certain Puritanism surrounded the view of feminist art that prevented it from being seen as acceptable when it was sexually exciting and provocative. So when P&D art utilized some of the mechanisms of feminist art (provocation, pleasure, softness, etc) it challenged the intellectual systems that were supposed to be uppermost in the viewer's mind." [5] There was a renaissance of interest and critical attention as result of the fresh scholarship. Cotter goes on to explain why the contemporary climate is more able to understand and appreciate the movement: "Thanks to multiculturalism and identity politics, we know better what to make of them now; the art world's horizons are immeasurably wider than they were two decades ago." [1]
There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement and the feminist art movement. [5] The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements,[ citation needed ] which valued austerity and demeaned ornamentation and craft.
In their widely anthologized 1978 essay "Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture," P&D artists Joyce Kozloff and Valerie Jaudon explained how they thought sexist and racist assumptions underlaid Western art history discourse. They reasserted the value of ornamentation and aesthetic beauty - qualities assigned to the feminine sphere. [14] [6] [15]
Floral imagery, patterning, and decoration are associated with the feminine. P&D artists included elements of crafts such as needlepoint and beading, which were traditionally done by women within the domestic sphere. By including these elements in their work, they dismantle the hierarchy of fine art over craft, and thereby raise questions about public (male) verses domestic (female) spaces, and fine art versus utilitarian objects. [16]
However, critics argue about to what extent the P&D movement can be considered feminist. Although Kozloff and Jaudon were explicit about their feminist agenda, male artists Robert Kushner (artist) and Kim MacConnel sometimes avoided the label. [17] They were more vocal about their aesthetic motivation for pursuing decoration. Writes Kushner: "For gallery and museum acceptance, if the art was industrial-looking, rectangular, and gray, black, or white, it was shown... Everything else (except color field painting, which today can be viewed as Technicolor minimalism) seemed to be marginalized. This simply did not fit many of our temperaments. Gray was boring. We wanted our art to be a lasting experience that took a great deal of time to decode fully." [18]
Since these male artists both helped to define the P&D movement and were commercially successful, [19] there is disagreement about P&D being called a woman's movement. On the other hand, Carissa DiGiovanni argues that male artists' distance from the feminist cause actually advanced it overall by taking feminine aesthetics and making them acceptable to the art establishment. [20]
In addition to the 2008 retrospective mentioned above, in 2019 Anna Katz curated the museum exhibit With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 which ran at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from October 27, 2019 – May 18, 2020. [21] Subsequently the exhibit traveled to Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College from June 26–November 28, 2021. [22]
Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University, Fresno which acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education during the 1970s. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Her most well-known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery.
Tony Robbin is an American artist and author, who works with painting, sculpture and computer visualizations. He is considered part of the Pattern and Decoration (P&D) art movement.
The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lacy, Judith Bernstein, Sheila de Bretteville, Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, Rachel Rosenthal, and many other women. They were part of the Feminist art movement in the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art. The movement spread quickly through museum protests in both New York and Los Angeles, via an early network called W.E.B. that disseminated news of feminist art activities from 1971 to 1973 in a nationally circulated newsletter, and at conferences such as the West Coast Women's Artists Conference held at California Institute of the Arts and the Conference of Women in the Visual Arts, at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C..
Miriam Schapiro was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pattern and Decoration art movement. Schapiro's artwork blurs the line between fine art and craft. She incorporated craft elements into her paintings due to their association with women and femininity. Schapiro's work touches on the issue of feminism and art: especially in the aspect of feminism in relation to abstract art. Schapiro honed in her domesticated craft work and was able to create work that stood amongst the rest of the high art. These works represent Schapiro's identity as an artist working in the center of contemporary abstraction and simultaneously as a feminist being challenged to represent women's "consciousness" through imagery. She often used icons that are associated with women, such as hearts, floral decorations, geometric patterns, and the color pink. In the 1970s she made the hand fan, a typically small woman's object, heroic by painting it six feet by twelve feet. "The fan-shaped canvas, a powerful icon, gave Schapiro the opportunity to experiment … Out of this emerged a surface of textured coloristic complexity and opulence that formed the basis of her new personal style. The kimono, fans, houses, and hearts were the form into which she repeatedly poured her feelings and desires, her anxieties, and hopes".
Harmony Hammond is an American artist, activist, curator, and writer. She was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970s New York.
Joyce Kozloff is an American artist known for her paintings, murals, and public art installations. She was one of the original members of the Pattern and Decoration movement and an early artist in the 1970s feminist art movement, including as a founding member of the Heresies collective.
Robert Rahway Zakanitch is an American painter and was one of the founders of the Pattern and Decoration movement. His work is held in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Valerie Jaudon is an American painter commonly associated with various Postminimal practices – the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s, site-specific public art, and new tendencies in abstraction.
Robert Kushner(; born 1949, Pasadena, CA) is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration. He has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner creates installations in a variety of mediums, from large-scale public mosaics to delicate paintings on antique book pages.
Amy Goldin was an American art critic who worked from 1965 until 1978. In those thirteen years, she published almost 200 pieces, from single paragraph reviews of current exhibitions, catalog essays, and book reviews. She covered topics that were unconventional at the time: Folk art, African-American art, craft, decoration, graffiti and Islamic art. Her writing appeared regularly in Arts, ARTnews, Artforum, Art Journal, New American Review, International Journal for Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and most frequently in Art in America, where she was a contributing editor.
Holly Solomon (1934–2002) was an American collector of contemporary art and founder of the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City in 1975. Her SoHo, Manhattan gallery was initially known for nurturing the artistic movement known as Pattern and Decoration, which was a reaction to the austerities of Minimal art. She was the subject of an early portrait by Andy Warhol that made her a Pop Art icon, of sorts, as well as the subject of portraits by Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Holly and Horace Solomon made a lasting contribution to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark when they provided the site for Matta-Clark's project Splitting, a suburban home in Englewood, New Jersey.
Holly Solomon Gallery opened in New York City in 1975 at 392 West Broadway in Soho, Manhattan. Started by Holly Solomon - aspiring actress, style-icon, and collector - and her husband Horace Solomon, the gallery was initially known for launching major art careers and nurturing the artistic movement known as Pattern and Decoration, which was a reaction to the austerities of Minimal art.
Cynthia Carlson is an American visual artist, living and working in New York.
The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women's achievements in the arts, and Jimmy Carter presided over the first Women's Caucus for Art award ceremony in the Oval Office in 1979. The WCA Honor Awards Ceremony has occurred annually most years since then.
Susan Michod is an American feminist painter who has been at the forefront of the Pattern and Decoration movement since 1969. Her work "consists of monumental paintings [which are] thickly painted, torn, collaged, spattered, sponged, sprinkled with glitter and infused with a spirit of love of nature and art," the art critic Sue Taylor has written.
Thalia Gouma-Peterson (1933-2001) was Professor Emerita of Art History and museum curator at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Born in Athens, Greece she came to the U.S. as a Fulbright student in 1952.
Kira Nam Greene is a New York-based painter known for combining ethnographic imagery, meticulous realism, and layered patterns. Greene has expressed her commitment to painting as a way to explore feminism, materialism, and beauty.
Arlene Slavin is a painter, sculptor, and a print-maker whose practice also includes large-scale public art commissions. Slavin is a 1977 National Endowment for the Arts Grant recipient.
Sherry Brody was an American artist and pioneering member of the feminist art movement. Brody is known for her work on the Womanhouse project. Her sculpture, The Dollhouse, is in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art collection.
Christopher Tanner is an American contemporary artist, actor, singer, performer.
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