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| MIRIAM SCHAPIRO |
Miriam Schapiro was brought up in Brooklyn, New York. During the Abstract Expressionism movement of the '60s, Schapiro followed a path of her own. She is known for her commitment to feminist art. Schapiro advocated woman's art as a means of heightening the importance of women and their experiences. For Schapiro the question is how can a female artist find her position as both an artist and a woman in the 20th century? During the '70s, her work became referential to women in many ways through the use of patterns and collages. As the leading member of the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the mid '70s, Schapiro incorporated dress, costume, and decorative patterns into her art. Schapiro's collages, or "femmages" as she sometimes calls them, include the needlework of other, perhaps long forgotten women. Schapiro has attempted to break the barrier between art and craft by reintroducing pattern and decoration into the modernist art world. Schapiro's later works usually have a more obvious political meaning, but Kimono is less political and expresses more of a balance between design and content. Flowers of all sorts are prominent in this collage; the large chrysanthemums in the center link the floral dresses of America to the costumes of Asia - east meets west. Kimono represents an identity. In the Western world, the kimono tends to be associated with submission, fragility, and femininity. In the Eastern world, however, the kimono was worn by both men and women. Schapiro's kimono, with its bold colors and large surface area, does not look delicate, passive, or quiet. The dramatic patterns and widened obi block out the kimono's symmetrical surface and meaning, suggesting a new symbolic status. |
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 PANNELL ART GALLERY
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