The Belittelment of the Perspectives from Women of Color in Abstract Expressionism: A Manifesto
The world of art has seemed to have stayed subjective. Unlike politics and science, one cannot deem something right or wrong, so the success of artists and artworks relies largely on their beauty and impact on other people.
In the late 1800s, the impressionism movement started in France with artists like Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. During the 1900s, Post World War II, the art world decided to move away from realistic and visually accurate pieces, making way for the abstract expressionism movement in New York and the stylized works of men like Jackson Pollock. What these two movements had in common is their focus on the artist as an individual, as the art was more representative of the world through the artist’s eyes. These movements worked to bend the standards of art as well as their intended impact. Suddenly, art was not just about skill and replication but also interpretation and imagination, showing the world as it could be, should be, or just how the artist saw it. (Personally, my own art is heavily influenced by my experiences and my emotions, so without these movements, my art would not be recognized as such.) And although this proved beneficial for many artists and their freedom of expression, this also opened the door for people’s implicit bias and racist tendencies to factor in.
Many women, but especially women of color, fell short of success in the art world because of the inescapable fact that their voices would not be valued as much as a white man’s would be. The works became meaningless simply because the majority could not relate to them. The significant misrepresentation of the women of color that defined this movement only proves that we have to re-examine our perceptions of good art and art that relies largely on storytelling. However, this extends further than the art world. It is a constant struggle for women of color to have their experiences recognized, let alone prioritized. Within the art world, we have been quick to label honoring women of color artists for their techniques as progression, but many still fail to notice these women in the same way when their art is not so linear or universally understood. So learning to empathize with abstract ideas and art is a skill that will become applicable to many other branches of representation, not just the abstract art world.
Societal impacts aside, abstract art and other forms of self-expression have been a vital part of coping for many women of color. It is crucial to first understand why the stories told through art, by women of color, in particular, are profoundly meaningful. Historically, marginalized voices have found ways to represent themselves in less “threatening” and apparent ways. Methods such as fiction literature, music, and poetry have seemed to be defined differently for these marginalized voices. This is because, as a marginalized voice, it is hard to even have your ideas leave the confinements of your own mind. Audre Lorde, a Black poet, in describing her own desire to write, stated: “It is within this light that we form those ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized. This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are- until the poem- nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.” She highlights that there is something beautiful and enlightening about a narrative derived from a suppressed emotion. Lorde defines her light as poetry, something that is a vital aspect of her being, not just a “luxary.” This distinction shows how the perspectives shown through her poetry are necessary to rationalize emotions and inflict change. I believe the way she talks about poetry can also be applied to more general forms of art. Forms of self-expression are like languages in that they convey essential ideas that would otherwise be formless. Even within Lorde’s own path, she repeatedly spoke out during the 1980s about the lack of recognition for women of color within the broader feminism movement.
Throughout history, the emotions of women of color have been labeled as impractical and unserious, so within a movement so devoted to loose figures and colorful swirls, this argument should become invalid. However, we have chosen to deny ourselves of comprehending these select narratives. Only leading us to a place where the true meaning of abstractionism and expressionism are almost exclusively applicable to the works of white men alone.
“The motive behind the Black aesthetic is the destruction of the white thing, the destruction of white ideas, and white ways of looking at the world. The new aesthetic is mostly predicated on an Ethics, which asks the question: whose vision of the world is finally more meaningful, ours or the white oppressors’? What is truth? Or more precisely, whose truth shall we express, that of the oppressed or of the oppressors?”
Similarly, within The Black Power Movement, there was a movement that focused solely on the intersection of politics and art: The Black Aesthetics Movement. Although this movement centered around poets in particular, their broader goals were again relevant to many artists’ path to distinction. In 1968, Larry Neal, a member of the Black Arts Theater, wrote, “The motive behind the Black aesthetic is the destruction of the white thing, the destruction of white ideas, and white ways of looking at the world. The new aesthetic is mostly predicated on an Ethics, which asks the question: whose vision of the world is finally more meaningful, ours or the white oppressors’? What is truth? Or more precisely, whose truth shall we express, that of the oppressed or of the oppressors?” This essential question is what we should all be asking ourselves when looking at works that so heavily rely on the experiences of the artist. Redefining what meaningful art is would call on people to deconstruct the biases that may influence the way they view beauty. Unlike the White artists in the 1950s, artists within BAM centered a lot of their works around the manifestation of progression and liberation. However, when Neal refers to the deconstruction of white ways of looking at the world, I do not think he is only referring to political art. More so, the perspectives of African-Americans holistically.
Artists of color were commonly thought of as apprentices or hobbyists, not defining members of the expressionism movement. Alma Thomas, an active member of the abstract expressionism movement, remains one of the few women of color credited with this role. As art institutions begin to recognize the art of women, they are still highlighting predominantly white women. Alma Thomas is also known for her role as a tenacious art teacher within her community. However, her art pieces themselves were not as well known as expressionism until after her death.
The most attainable goal for these artists would be recognition and representation for their contribution to the movements. Adding their names to the websites, museums, and textbooks would not only give them the credit they deserve but would represent these movements more truthfully. However, the measures needed to prevent this same outcome in the future are much more rigorous. First, people who view art would need to dismantle their biases towards beauty and worth. Within a profession so dependent on preference, it is important that people understand how these biases would influence their perception of the works. We usually attach meaning to abstraction when we see or feel something familiar. Without this connection, a piece can look like a bunch of miscellaneous shapes and colors. However, expressionism is not about an unfamiliar viewer. For the artist, they have exhausted meaning, often pouring raw emotions into their work. So, just because the people defining the piece’s worth do not understand it, another group of people likely will. But more importantly, the artist’s ability to put feelings into lines, freely creating their own techniques, is already literally what the abstract expressionism movement was about. Defining success as it relates to a handful of art institutions would change the meaning of the said movement. That does not mean that people have to buy art that they do not like, it just means that these artists should be given a platform by prevalent members of the art and art history communities, uplifted for the people who will understand them. Once this can be done, adding more women of color to boards of museums and as gallerists would allow the “stamp of approval” to be given by more than one perspective. Having diversity within higher levels of the art world will make art as a profession more accessible and make success more attainable for women of color.
The most important step however, is teaching people who are offered countless forms of representation to empathize with marginalized stories. I know it is possible because any person of color can tell you that they have been doing it their whole lives. One of the reasons why people are so quick to dismiss the meaning of a piece is because they are not willing to think on it and learn from it. A modern example of this would be the extreme backlash Pixar’s “Turning Red” received before the movie even came out. The movie was about a Chinese-Canadian girl growing up in the early 2000s and going through puberty. Critics and random YouTubers alike claimed that the character and her struggle were too specific. After the movie came out, many of these same people said they disliked the movie because it wasn’t relatable. Sean O’Connell, the managing director of CinemaBlends, tweeted, “Some Pixar films are made for universal audiences. ‘Turning Red’ is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific and very narrow. If you are in it, this might work very well for you. I am not in it. This was exhausting.” Growing up as a woman of color, I quickly learned to appreciate and enjoy Pixar and Disney movies that did not depict my life. However, there seems to be an underlying theme in the criticisms of modern representational movies: the movies aren’t relatable for the critics anymore, thereby making the movie a flop. Yes, this plot line is very particular, and so is the plot line of that one movie about a cooking rat in Paris.
This clearly connects to expressionism, as people who have not been under-represented do not have the skill of empathizing with others and understanding an emotion that is not their own. When people in the art world, similar to O’Connell, view something that they relate to, it becomes “universally” acclaimed. Contrarily, when a woman of color’s perspective is shown to a group of white men, hardly qualified to speak on it, it is dismissed. Everyone can work to develop the skill of empathy for the sake of self-expression and art professions. It would also help most people better understand the feelings, intentions, and aspirations of communities. Having empathy, whether viewing an animation about a Chinese-Canadian girl or a bold stroked, and colorful painting of a flower, will always lead one to have a greater appreciation and understanding of the perspectives of others.
“Alma Thomas: Your New Favorite Artist.” Alma thomas: Your new favorite artist. National Gallery of Art. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/video/ynfa-alma-thomas.html .Gotthardt, Alexxa. “11 Female Abstract Expressionists You Should Know, from Joan Mitchell to Alma Thomas.” Artsy, June 29, 2016. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-11-female-abstract-expressionists-who-are-not-helen-frankenthaler .Lorde, Audre. “Sister Outsider.” 1984. Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism.” Women’s Studies Assosiation Conference, 1981. Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement Drama Review.” 1968.Tong, Quynh Anh. “A ‘Turning Red’ Review: Is There a Bad Way to Do Representation?” The State News, March 31, 2022. https://statenews.com/article/2022/03/turning-red-review?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest#:~:text=People%20criticized%20the%20movie%20for,amount%20of%20the%20population%20experiences. “'Turning Red' Cast Speaks up after Controversial Review Was Called 'Racist' and Pulled Offline.” Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo! Accessed November 8, 2022. https://sports.yahoo.com/turning-red-cast-speaks-controversial-223826038.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGL3-QKO8Unxx7ZxaVedwmxRGjxssDj1F4dr-2LhchThKuGpK9ukZbWQDKLbuXA9VsHn03Avb2x9t2zAl8UFU4pwAlQUg5vjHBm2Olx3rrm1yWzH3EHX9HdanfsaFYhqB9UN-GIN1c4ZsgDNxdv1UnbK-KAvLW1YHxyEnO2C5HX5 . 