Personal & Political

By Elin Spring

Is it my imagination, or does each generation of women discover – as their mothers did before them – the pleasures and terrors of womanhood and find cause to usher in their own wave of feminism? The current wave emerged from the #MeToo movement and has manifested itself in the ongoing multi-part MFA, Boston show “Women Take The Floor.” Another vigorous movement, commonly referred to as “second wave feminism,” occupied national attention starting in the 1960’s in conjunction with the Civil Rights movement, publication of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” and introduction of the birth control pill, to name just a few incitements. This wave unleashed a torrent of outspoken artistry by women and is examined with aplomb in the newly opened exhibit “Personal and Political: Women Photographers, 1965-1985,” housed within “Women Take The Floor.”

“Patti Smith, New Orleans”
Annie Leibovitz (American, born in 1949)
1978
Photograph, chromogenic print
Gift of Jan Colombi and Jay Reeg
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs, sets the tone for “Personal and Political” with Annie Leibovitz’s fiery portrait of singer Patti Smith, shot for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. With characteristic edgy inventiveness, Leibovitz’s backdrop of burning barrels of kerosene channels the turmoil of the moment and of the artist, who sang “desire is hunger is the fire I breathe.” The mellifluous salon-style installation of portraits that follows challenges the ways that women were historically represented. Wielding their own cameras and viewpoints, they gained access to venues and affiliations that remained off-limits to men, from Black documentary photographer Ming Smith’s droll image of Harlem lady church-goers to Diane Arbus’ startling and poignant portrait of an aging former debutante to Boston photographer Marie Cosindas’ sumptuous color Polaroid portrait of the groundbreaking sculptor, “Louise Nevelson” (1974). In these images and others, women explored novel and expanded visions of identity.

“Amen Corner Sisters, New York City, NY”
Ming Smith (American, born in 1947)
1976, printed 2019
Photograph, gelatin silver print, The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection
Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Brenda Diana Duff Frazier, 1938 Debutante of the Year, at home, Boston, Mass.”
Diane Arbus (American, 1923–1971)
1966
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Gift of Jeffrey Fraenkel and Frish Brandt
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Louise Nevelson”
Marie Cosindas (American, 1925–2017)
1974
Photograph, dye transfer print from a Polaroid original
Gift of the Polaroid Corporation
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Highway 74”
Mimi Plumb (American, born 1953)
1985
Gelatin silver print
Museum purchase with funds donated by Scott Offen
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

During this period, women’s approach to landscape photography gravitated to the socially conscious. They focused on the importance of our personal and societal relationships to nature, often running counter to the prevailing narrative cast by those such as National Geographic and Ansel Adams. Mimi Plumb’s “Highway 74” (1985), a sweeping, large format B&W image initially appears to adhere to a mythologized American West, but her detailed view of a treacherous stretch of highway dotted with manmade detritus instead imparts a sense of unease and disillusionment. Linda Connor’s “Seven Sacred Pools, Maui” (1978) emphasizes the primacy of spirituality while Barbara Norfleet’s disjointed, surreal “Gray Horse and Car Radio Antenna” (1985) addresses the precarious position of wildlife in light of the growing population and urban sprawl.

“Seven Sacred Pools, Maui”
Linda Connor (American, born in 1944)
1978
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Gift of Francis W. Dolloff
Reproduced with permission.
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Gray Horse and Car Radio Antenna”
Barbara P. Norfleet (American, born in 1926)
1985
Photograph, chromogenic print
Edwin E. Jack Fund
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Bathroom Surveillance, or Vanity Eye”
Martha Rosler (American, born in 1943)
1966–1972
Photograph, inkjet print (photomontage)
Museum purchase with funds donated by Scott Offen
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The images Haas selected to represent the “domestic sphere” are the most deliciously defiant in the exhibit. Long confined to the home front, feminist photographers seized on alternatives to the predominant script of domestic bliss. In images that feature suggestive role-playing, photographers grapple with the yoke of traditional feminine roles and cultural presumptions. Martha Rosler’s “Bathroom Surveillance” (1966-72) is a jarring affront to both “picture perfect” beauty and Cold War policies while Francesca Woodman’s “Rome” (1977-78) represents a complete abandonment of societal expectations in her self-portrait that simultaneously evokes Christ and a fallen angel. Even in the fantastical “The Petite Theater of the Queen, Marie Antoinette” (1980) by fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville, archetypes of privilege are cast in deserted or dilapidated surroundings that contrast dreams and reality.

“Rome”
Francesca Woodman (American, 1958–1981)
about 1977-78, printed later
Photograph, gelatin silver print
The Lane Collection
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“The Petite Theater of the Queen, Marie Antoinette”
Deborah Turbeville (American, 1938–2013)
1980
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Gift of the Deborah Turbeville Foundation
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Poor People’s Campaign March, Washington, D.C.”
Jill Freedman
(American, 1939 – 2019)
1968
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Michael and Elizabeth Marcus Collection

Documentary and especially street photography paved a way for women to champion racial injustice and gender inequality. Jill Freedman’s indelible indictment of racial poverty in “Poor People’s Campaign March, Washington, D.C.” (1968) proffers an assessment of inequities in the US that sadly still sting today. Recent museum purchases of images by daring Latinx women photographers document both private rebellions and public demonstrations against repressive Latin American dictatorships. In an especially endearing example, the matching outfits, gestures and expressions in Adriana Lestido’s “Mother and Daughter” (1982) create a stirring tribute to those who gathered in Argentina’s Plaza de Mayo to plead for information about the thousands of “disappeared” relatives who were detained and murdered by the government.

Feature Image: “Mother and Daughter” from Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Adriana Lestido (Argentine, born in 1955)
1982
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Museum purchase with funds donated by Scott Offen, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“The personal is political” was the slogan of second wave feminism. In this deftly interwoven exhibit, curator Karen Haas features photographers working 1965-1985 from Canada to Latin America in a demonstration of how women’s personal lives were inextricably linked to cultural and political inequalities. The provocations and inspirations of the Civil and Equal Rights movements share many qualities with our current #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements. “Personal and Political” sheds light on a vibrant historical narrative, offering a perspective that brings our own times into sharper focus.

For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/women-take-the-floor