Although undefined, female art dates back much further than the Victorian Period. While there is neither time nor space to delve into the details of these early works, it seems important to mention that female issues, such as childbirth, were addressed in art long before any sort of women's liberation movement. It may not have been art created by women, but the female existence was not ignored.

Females started getting noticed as artists in the late 18th century, but it wasn't until the Victorian era that progress began. Feminist art in the Victorian Period varies in meaning, but the styles of early sculptresses and painters did not start to take on their own unique forms until later in the movement. In the beginning, the critics and males in the field focused on the women artists more readily than the actual art itself. Female art wasn't taken seriously, nor were the messages the artists attempted to send. Although subject matter, such as pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, were lightly brushed on in the Victorian period, it wasn't until the 20th century that explicit depictions of these events began to appear in art forms.

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964. Performed on July 20, 1964 at Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan. Photographer unknown: Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive

In the early 1970s, Judy Gerowitz became Judy Chicago, marriage name abandoned for her birthplace. 5 years of travail saw the birth of her Dinner Party (1974 – 1979), a homage to 39 female historical figures gathered at an imaginary dinner, similar to Jesus Christ’s last meeting with his disciples.

Judy Chicago
An artist from the 1970's who was influenced by Hosmer and Lewis, created a huge table of place settings for her masterpiece. She created 39 different plates, each shaped like an intricate vulva, and each representing an important, but overshadowed woman in history. Chicago said that her, "primary aim was to celebrate women's achievements in the face of all odds. Her piece, entitled, The Dinner Party, turned the focus back to the art itself, rather than the artist, and as a result, became one of the most important pieces in American art to date.

However, the 1980s exposed the disillusion of an equal art world, a few individual’s success and recognition could not guarantee a possible gender-crossing. A deep feeling of disappointment prevailed: the gender-difference stubbornly lingered on; a true emancipation in art and other aspects of life was still in lack.

An opposite strategy was in work. Artists such as Sherrie Levine and Elaine Sturtevant worked in a manner that was completely separated from their own biography, in the style of Appropriation, in order to avoid having to engage with the role of the woman in their work.

The late 1980s witnessed a younger generation of self-confident women artists benefiting from what feminism had accomplished. Laurie Anderson and Cindy Sherman both adopted a more playful approach in their exploration of gender and identity. The former distorted her voice in order to showcase her sexual ambivalence; the later presented herself in large-format photographs as the object of various projections, confusing the already unascertainable identity in the ever-changing roles that she slipped into.

This self-confidence was confirmed by women artists’ final conquest in the pre-eminent art institutions, the Guggenheim Museum in New York finally given a solo show to Jenny Holzer (1989) and Rebecca Horn (1993), while the prestigious Turner Prize was given, for the first time to a woman artist, to Rachel Whiteread. However, in the commercial market, there is still a big disparity.

The 1990s gave voice to artists from the traditionally off-centre regions. Women artists as well have made their multi-cultural identity or the situation of women in their homelands the subject of their work, such as Kara Walker. Some women artists experiment with the handicraft techniques to fuse a female association in their work.

Since the late 1990s, digital media or multi-media became a terrain more open and welcoming for women artists. Mariko Mori and Chao Fei, for example, used a complex audio system and a 3-D display to transport the user to another world.

Progression seems linear. The art world seems more accommodating for women to survival. What about the 21st century? Where is the 21st century taking us to?

In this issue, we started with three women pioneers in the 20th century, Niki de Saint Phalle, Louise Bourgeois and Marina Abramović. They represent to me some core issues in the work of female artists, such as subversion and empowerment, memory and life experience, the female body and the male gaze, violence and oppression. From the private to the public, they adapted a similar strategy of going inward, in a form of introspection, of self-examination, then facing the world.

Then we moved to the 21st century with 5 women artists from different region of the world, different cultural background, and different age. They are: Shen Yuan (b. 1959 in China), Teresa Margolles (b. 1963 in Mexico), Euliala Valldosera (b. 1963 in Spain), Elke Krystufek (b. 1970 in Austria) and Shilpa Gupta (b. 1976 in India). These five artists made their name in the international art scene in the last 10 years with their powerful and unique artistic language. The issues of their predecessors are the recurrent themes of their work, for the simple fact that the situation of women and women artists does not change as much as we expected. Shen Yuan’s work departs from women’s shared everyday situation, gender roles and expectations remained unchanged over the decades, and centuries. In a similar vein, Euliala takes the question of female sexuality from the everyday situation to cinematic, spectacular level. Elke prefers more violent and brutal means when facing the notions of sexuality and male gaze in the construction of gender identity Teresa Margolles also tackles the questions of violence and brutality, but on the level of international politics. Violence, injustice, life and death, fear and abuse, these are the shared topics between Teresa and Shilpa. Shilpa is the youngest among the five of them. In the last 10 years, she finds an efficient way to link up the problems of identity, gender, cultural difference, racial violence, war, national security and threat, etc., to our daily life.

This issue is a first step to a big question that interests me all the time, both as a woman and art historian. It doesn’t attempt to be a profound investigation, but a starting point to look into the situation of women in the 21st century.