In April 1974, Video Data
Bank co-founders Lyn Blumenthal and Kate Horsfield conducted their first
interview, an in-depth conversation with art historian and curator
Marcia Tucker. During the remainder of that year, Blumenthal and
Horsfield went on to interview four more notable art world women: Joan
Mitchell, Lucy Lippard, Agnes Martin and Ree Morton.
Seen together, these five interviews mark a seminal moment in the history of 20th Century art, a moment in which women artists were increasingly being asked to define and position their practice within the growing feminist movement. Blumenthal and Horsfield’s interviews with these remarkable women each touch on the question of gender and the role it played in shaping their aesthetics and career trajectories in a male dominated art world. Through these conversations, Lippard, Mitchell, Morton, Tucker, and Martin each personally define their experience as women artists, and talk about the influence of feminism on their own life. With self-awareness and considerable thought, these artists each embrace (or dismiss) an artistic vision aligned with femininity. Four decades later, these important conversations shed light on an exceptional period in which a new awareness of oppressive social constraints and gender inequality was matched by an exuberant sense of excitement and potential about what “women’s work” in the field of art might truly be.
These historical interviews were edited with the support of the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.
Lyn Blumenthal has been recognized as a leading and innovative experimental feminist media artist and teacher. Her multi-disciplinary body of work included videos, sculpture, drawings and critical essays. She forged new directions and objectives for the field of independent video—not only creating important video pieces, but also envisioning alternative video as a critical voice within the culture. read more »
Kate Horsfield received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1976 and in the same year co-founded the Video Data Bank with the late Lyn Blumenthal. Horsfield was Executive Director of the Video Data Bank from 1988 to 2006. Horsfield and Blumenthal began their research in contemporary art in video by producing over 200 video interviews with contemporary artists, photographers and critics. read more »
Seen together, these five interviews mark a seminal moment in the history of 20th Century art, a moment in which women artists were increasingly being asked to define and position their practice within the growing feminist movement. Blumenthal and Horsfield’s interviews with these remarkable women each touch on the question of gender and the role it played in shaping their aesthetics and career trajectories in a male dominated art world. Through these conversations, Lippard, Mitchell, Morton, Tucker, and Martin each personally define their experience as women artists, and talk about the influence of feminism on their own life. With self-awareness and considerable thought, these artists each embrace (or dismiss) an artistic vision aligned with femininity. Four decades later, these important conversations shed light on an exceptional period in which a new awareness of oppressive social constraints and gender inequality was matched by an exuberant sense of excitement and potential about what “women’s work” in the field of art might truly be.
These historical interviews were edited with the support of the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.
Lyn Blumenthal has been recognized as a leading and innovative experimental feminist media artist and teacher. Her multi-disciplinary body of work included videos, sculpture, drawings and critical essays. She forged new directions and objectives for the field of independent video—not only creating important video pieces, but also envisioning alternative video as a critical voice within the culture. read more »
Kate Horsfield received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1976 and in the same year co-founded the Video Data Bank with the late Lyn Blumenthal. Horsfield was Executive Director of the Video Data Bank from 1988 to 2006. Horsfield and Blumenthal began their research in contemporary art in video by producing over 200 video interviews with contemporary artists, photographers and critics. read more »
