Did The Modernist Movement Really Provide Freedom for Early 20th Century Women Artists?

 Winifred Gill and Nina Hamnett modeling dresses at the Omega Workshops, c. 1913

     Great changes occurred in art in the early 20^th century, with the modernists kicking down doors and reinventing how we create and view art. Modernists were often associated with artistic and social freedom and differed from the artists from the century before. Modernism created more inclusive spaces and opportunities for women than 19th-century academies. Modernism brought new ways of thinking about surface planes becoming the carriers for the spiritual content, which defines the “new” art and removes it from the domain of the decorative (Chadwick, 2021, p.85). It is interesting to see how this bending of color and perspective is utilized differently, often outside the ‘static’ painting medium. Modernists explore textiles and clothing as an art form and a form of social change that bent gender and cultural identities. 

     During this time, groups like the Omega Workshops were created, providing meeting places and studio space for like-minded artists interested in exploring the boundaries between Victorian ‘high’ and ‘low’ art and ‘art’ and ‘craft.’ This gave women a creative space and a livelihood through designing and decorating fabrics, furniture, pottery, and other small items ( Chadwick, 2021,p.85). This was an inclusive space that allowed women, which is reinforced by most patrons being women. I think these exchanges between women, patrons, and artists supported the ideology of the new woman of the early 20th century. While it was still a long way to equality between the sexes, this was a significant turning point that allowed women more independence and freedom to create a life outside the role of a mother/wife.

Sonia Delaunay in her studio c. 1925

    A noteworthy early 20th-century Modernist artist is Sonia Delaunay c. 1885-1979, born in Russia and moved to Paris, France, in 1905. Delaunay worked in painting and textiles. She married French Cubist Robert Delaunay in 1910, and the two other them explored Post-Impressionism. They were convinced that modernity could be best expressed through a " dynamic interplay of color harmonies and dissonances which replicated the rhythms of modern urban life" ( Chadwick, 2021, p.85). The couple moved to Madrid. Sonia Delaunay became acquainted with prominent members of the Spanish high society and, with backing from an English Bank, opened up her own small shop called Casa Sonia, which brought modern design to Spain ( Chadwick, 2021, p.88). The couple moved back to Paris in 1921 and started working with the Dada art movement. The Dadas took to her style of painting and textiles more so than that of her husband. The Dadas lived and breathed art and incorporated it into all aspects of their lives, and this drew in the Delaunays ( Chadwick, 2021, p.88). Her costumes were sought out by both sexes even though it was made for women, which helped explore early 20th-century ideologies of gender. Even though Sonia Delaunay was a sought-after and successful artist, she stated this statement about her husband, "From the first day we started living together, I played second fiddle and didn't put myself first until the 1950s" ( Chadwick, 2021, p.87). Sonia Delaunay is an excellent example of an early 20th-century modern woman who had more opportunities than women from the prior century or even decades before but still was placed in a gender role of succumbing to her husband's needs and career before her own.

Paula Modersohn-Becker Girl with a cat in the birch forest c.1904-1905

     Another successful early 20th-century woman artist was German Expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker c.1876-1907. Even though she died at age 31, she paved the way for women artists, confronted the male gaze, and was the first woman to paint a nude self-portrait and have her own museum (Chadwick, 2021, p.94). Her nude self-portraits challenged gender roles and how women artists insert themselves into existing artist conventions. What is noteworthy is that her paintings depicted the female form in a non-sensual way. Her forms are not submissive female forms but forms that dominate the scene (Chadwick, 2021, p.94). I wonder how her work would have continued if she hadn't died at such a young age.

Maria Izquierdo Self -Portrait c.1940 

     Going across the sea to Mexico, we examine another early 20th-century woman artist, Maria Izquierdo c. 1902-1955. This little-known artist was a contemporary of Frida Kahlo and Diago Rivera and was the first Mexican woman artist to exhibit in the United States. She was an integral part of the Mexican Modernist movement of the early 20th century. She began her career in the late 1920s, shy of a decade after the Mexican Revolutionary War (Deffebach, 2015,p.1). Izquierdo was associated with the Mexican Muralist movement but had issues with how it was male-centric and drifted away to work on her identity. This led to her exhibiting internationally, which is a big thing, being that she was a woman and Mexican. In Mexico, women artists had more opportunities compared to most countries, except Russia and Brazil ( Deffebach, 2015, p.4). She still had issues emphasizing Mexican Masculinity and how even the left discredited Feminism. The Left said Feminism was a Bourgoiuse reform movement contrary to workers' rights ( Deffebach, 2015, p. 161). This transitionary period for women in Mexico created anxiety about traditional female roles. Izquierdo was a proponent for women's rights, though she didn't call herself a feminist partially because of the  Marxist influence on the Mexican art world. Even though she was a successful woman artist, she had to deal with a difficult path of opposition from male artists and government officials. In her last statement on Women's rights published in a newspaper by an anonymous journalist stated, " I believe in the present no one will suffer an injustice as I did. It seems that now it won't be a crime to be born a woman." this statement was about the controversy of her 1945 mural commission and the positive changes that the President Aldolfo Ruiz Cortines  (Deffebach, 2015, p.173). she died a few years later, just after women in Mexico finally received the right to vote.

    The early 20th century was a time of great change for women, which provided more opportunities for women outside the prior rigid gender roles of being a wife and mother. The Modernist movement was entwined with social reforms and confronted the male-dominated world but still lacked in providing true freedom for women. Women may have been liberated in some ways but could not vote until the middle of the 20th century. It may have been better than the 19th century, but they still faced many inequalities, and these strong women paved the way for equal rights in the arts and life.

References

Chadwick, W. (2020). Women, Art, and Society (Sixth) (World of Art) (6th ed.). W. W. Norton. https://tiffin-bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9780500775967

Nancy Deffebach. (2015). María Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo : Challenging Visions in Modern Mexican Art: Vol. First edition. University of Texas Press.