Analysis
of DX work & exhibition
N.Paradoxa Review by Katy Deepwell
A Brief Analysis of the Women Artists Shown in Documenta X
Curator : Catherine David b.1954
30 women artists represented amongst
/ c.107 projects.
Women Artists, whose work represented as historical examples within the framework of Documenta X.
Alison Smithson & Peter
Smithson,working since 1950's,UK
Lygia Clark 1920-1988, b.Belo Horizonte,d.
Rio de Janeiro
Maria Lassnig b.1919 Kappel, lives Vienna
Helen Levitt b.1913, Bensonhurst, lives New
York.
Nancy Spero b.1926 Cleveland,Ohio, lives New
York
Catherine Beaugrand b.1953, Marzingarbe,
lives Paris
Dorothee Golz b.1960 Mulheim/Ruhr
Ulrike Grossarth b.1952 Oberhausen,lives
Berlin
Siobhán Hapaska b.1965,Belfast,lives
London
Christine Hill b.1968, Binghampton,New York,
lives Berlin
Christine & Irene Hohenbüchler
b.1964 Vienna, live Berlin/Vienna
Aglaia Konrad b.1960, Slazburg, lives
Brussels
Suzanne Lafont b.1949,Nimes, lives Paris
Sigalit Landau b.1969 Jerusalem
Antonia Lerch * in Mainz, lives Berlin
Yana Milev b.1964,Leipzig, lives Berlin
Mariella Mosler b.1962 Oldenburg, lives
Hamburg
Liisa Roberts b.1969 Paris, lives New York
Anne-Marie Schneider b.1962 Chauny, lives
Paris
Meg Stuart b.1965 New Orleans, lives Brussels
Danielle Vallert Kleiner b.1958 Paris
Marijke van Warmerdam b.1959 Amstel,Holland,
lives Amstersdam
Penny Yassour b.1950 Israel, lives Kibbutz
Ein Harod Ihud
Andrea Zittel b.1965 Escondido,California,
lives New York.
Couples / collaborative projects in Documenta X where one partner female
Aya & Gal Middle East (collaboration for
last 5 years, based in Jerusalem)
Carsten Höller/Rosemarie Trockel(b.1952,Koln)
jodi (Joan Heemskerk(b.1968,Netherlands,
lives Barcelona)/Dirk Paesmans)
Christoph Marthaler/Anna Viebrock(b.1951,
Germany,incl.Berlin & Hamburg)
Alison & Peter Smithson
Eva Wohlegemuth(b.1955,Austria, lives
Vienna)/Andreas Baumann
Sigalit Landau,Liisa Roberts, Christine Hill and
Joan Heemskerk are the youngest amongst these artists by 3 years.
The majority of the contemporary artists (twelve) are born 1958-1965
Seven women slightly older amongst the contemporary group are all born
between 1948-1955: Penny Yassour, Suzanne Lafont,
Ulrike Grossarth, Catherine Beaugrand, Anna Viebrock, Rosemarie Trockel,
Eva Wohlegemuth
With two exceptions, the majority of women artists selected for Documenta X live and work in either New York, Jerusalem or European cities (namely, Lygia Clark and Penny Yassour). Largest group amongst these women are those working in Berlin (6). Combined with those working in Germany, 9 women currently live and work in Germany. Second largest group come from Paris (4), then Israel (3) - two of these from Jerusalem, Vienna (3) , New York (3), Brussels (2) , London (2) with single representatives working in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona and Holland.
Of all these women artists, Suzanne Lafont was also included in Documenta IX curated by Jan Hoet, which was notorious for its under-representation of women. In Documenta IX , there were 186 artists whose work was selected and shown, of these only 24 were women (13%). Namely, Marina Abramovic, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Marie-Jose Burki, Silvie & Cherif Defraoui, Marlene Dumas, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Vera Frenkel, Angela Grauerholz, Rebecca Horn, Roni Horn, Suzanne Lafont, Zoe Leonard, Ingeborg Luscher, Marisa Merz, Liliano Moro, Christa Naher, Cady Noland, Susan Rothenberg, Maria Serebriakova, Mariella Simoni, Pat Steir.
The under-representation of women in Documenta IX sparked a protest from
Uta Meta Bauer, Tina Geissler and Sandra Hastenteufel called 'Information
Service'. A documentation project / archive on contemporary women artists
presented as a gallery installation at the Martin Schmitz Gallery in 1992.
(see Sabeth Buchmann 'Information Service: Info-Work' October 71
Winter 1995 pp.103-108). There was also an alternative Documenta
'MISS-ING' 34 rooms in the Scheunenviertel, East Berlin in 1992 which
profiled women's work , 70 women from 18 countries, as a similar form of
protest (see L Green 'Another Documenta' Women's Art Magazine
No.48 Sept/Oct 1992).
Documenta X offered very few examples of
women as historical precedents for the trends explored in
Poetics/Politics. Instead the curators confined presented largely women
artists from two distinct and much younger generations and from a
distinctly European base. Women from Asia, Australia & the Pacific
Rim, Canada, Africa or Latin America (with the exception of
Lygia Clark) were notorious by their absence.
Through these means the curatorial team neatly circumvented the impact of
feminism in the visual arts, surely a dominant problematic for the modern
emergence of poetics and politics. In spite of this, they nevertheless
succeeded in raising the representation of women over the notional 15%
threshold (current in many contemporary art exhibitions) to
35%.
In some respects, given the history of Documenta, a remarkable
achievement !
While Catherine David was very clear that her intention in Documenta X was not to provide either a survey or a representative cross-section of trends in contemporary visual arts, nevertheless her selection should be assessed against the themes and ideas she offered as guidelines in this exhibition. Documenta X had the first woman curator of any Documenta. The press' general attitutde towards Catherine David as the curator however has been marked by a remarkable degree of (sexist) hostility with many accusations and complaints about her personal attitude and behaviour at press conferences. Documenta X has nevertheless appeared to be very popular with the gallery-going public attracting a larger number of visitors than ever and the press itself registering to attend the event in phenomenal numbers. 1,500 attended the press days at the opening event and a further 500+ were expected to visit after the doors had opened to the public.
Copyright © : Katy Deepwell,1997
N.Paradoxa : Issue No.4, August 1997