A Survey Of Contemporary Feminist Art Theory In The United States

In the 1960s, with the social movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and antiwar movements in the US, the student uprisings and the anti-traditional cultural movements in Western Countries rolling on with full force, the feminist movement in the US has risen to the second high tide. Meanwhile, impelled by feminist movements, the study of the feminist theory flourished in the whole world. With its distinctive tendency of discourse and unique point of view, the feminist theory has infiltrated gradually into various areas as politics, economics, social life, history, culture, art, etc., and has made a strong impact on the American culture and ideas.The thesis tries to summarize the development of art in the US intersecting with the feminism from 1960s, in the domains of artistic practice, art history and art criticism respectively, in order to draw an outline of modern feminist art in the US, from its genesis, its venation to the main viewpoints and genres, and to demonstrate the interaction of the feminist art practice and theory with the women's liberation movements and the feminist theory.The feminist art theory participates in art practice and theory study, holding the gender conception as its unique viewpoint. It disapproves of the discrimination and the limitation caused by the male-dominated point of view in the traditional research methodology of art history and art critiques and broadens the thoughts and methods of art study by introducing into it some social aspects such as gender, race, nation and social class.The feminist art and its theory are characterized by the comprehensiveness. Assimilating the theory and research achievements of a wide range of subjects including anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, literature, etc., the feminist art theory examines the art phenomenon from various angles. It breaks the limits of traditional art study and brings energy and innovational ideas into it. Nowadays, the feminist art and its theory have become one of the aspects that people can not neglect when discussing the development of modern art in the whole world. As to the development of art practice and the study of art theory in China, there is also much in the subject that can be used for reference.