From the first wave of feminism in the 1840s to second-wave feminism and the Feminist art movement of the 1960s and ’70s through the intersectional feminism of today, these 15 artworks by American women stand out for the lasting impact they’ve had on art history.
Carolee Schneemann, Interior Scroll, 1975
In August 1975, Carolee Schneemann entered an exhibition in East Hampton carrying a bucket of mud. After undressing and wrapping herself in a sheet, she read from her book Cezanne, She Was a Great Painter. She then dropped the sheet and ritualistically painted her body with the mud, before slowly extracting a scroll from her vagina. The scroll bore an adapted excerpt from the dialogue in Schneemann’s film Kitch’s Last Meal (1973–77), which she created in response to a male peer’s accusing her of making “messy, female work.” This performance, titled Interior Scroll, has since become an icon of the feminist art movement. By pulling the scroll out from within herself, she challenged the patriarchal gaze on the female body, reclaiming it as a site of knowledge and creativity. The text itself additionally challenged male-dominated artistic movements and institutions and their routine dismissal of female counterparts.