Mary Beth Edelson

Mary Beth Edelson

In Some Living American Women Artists (see fig. 1), Mary Beth Edelson replaced the heads of the figures in the Last Supper with female artists. The image of the Last Supper is still recognisable, the structure of the image is unchanged. Edelson has only added images of the heads of female artists in place of Christ and his disciples. When I first looked at this image, to me it appears to be drawing a comparison between the patriarchy in the art world with the patriarchy in religion. Edelson shows women in the roles of men, it represents how women struggle against tradition, expectation and inequality in their work and lives. It shows just a small amount of female artists there are, but they are often overlooked and dismissed. This is similar to what I am trying to do. I am attempting to look at the inequality in the art world by using a male dominated pilgrimage route. This artwork is influential to my work, as it has the same principles and aim behind it. Edelson also uses collage techniques to accomplish this, which is what I want to do. It also links religion and art together. This work is quite symbolic, Linda Aleci believes it “honors the ecumenical ideals of communion and community” (Aleci quoted in Greifen). Edelson compares the historical systematic omission of women in art and in aspects of religion. Edelson explains why she choose to challenge religion, as “the most negative aspect of organized religion, for me was the positioning of power and authority in the hands of a male hierarchy that intentionally excluded women from access to these positions…[The work] gave me a double pleasure of presenting the names and faces of the many women artists who were seldom seen in the art world of 1972 as ‘the grand subject’—while spoofing male exclusivity in the patriarchy” (Edelson quoted in Dang). 

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Figures

Fig. 1. Edelson, M. B (1972) Some Living American Women Artists [Photograph – Online] At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117141 (Accessed on 18th of November 2019).  

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Bibliography

Dang, F (2016) The Art of Storytelling. At: samblog.seattleartmuseum.org/tag/some-living-american-women-artists-last-supper/ (Accessed on 18th of November 2019). 

Griefen, K. Considering Mary Beth Edelson’s Some Living American Women Artists. At: https://brooklynrail.org/2019/03/criticspage/Considering-Mary-Beth-Edelsons-Some-Living-American-Women-Artists (Accessed on 18th of November 2019).