THE DECONSTRUCTIVE IMPULSE



WOMEN ARTISTS RECONFIGURE THE
SIGNS OF POWER, 1973-1991


above - S arah Charlesworth
"Figures" from Objects of Desire I, 1983-84
Cibachrome with lacquered wood frame
42 x 62 inches
Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC



This survey of leading women artists examines the crucial feminist contribution to the development of deconstructivism in the 1970s and ’80s.

As the term suggests, deconstructivism involved taking apart and examining source material, generally borrowed from the mass media, to expose the ways commercial images reveal the mechanisms of power.

Women had a particularly high stake in this kind of examination and were disproportionately represented among artists who practiced it.

The exhibition includes 68 photographs, prints, paintings, videos, and installations by 22 artists and one artist’s collaborative.

The artists include:
dith BarryDara Birnbaum
Barbara Bloom
Sarah Charlesworth
The Guerrilla Girls
Lynn Hershman
Susan Hiller
Jenny Holzer
Deborah Kass
Mary Kelly
Silvia Kolbowski
Barbara Kruger
Louise Lawler
Sherrie Levine
Adrian Piper
Martha Rosler
Cindy Sherman
Laurie Simmons
Lorna Simpson
Sturtevant
Carrie Mae Weems
Hannah Wilke

The Deconstructive Impulse will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated, 176-page, hardcover book that surveys the work of the artists included and places them in cultural and historical context. Co-published by the Neuberger Museum of Art and DelMonico Books•Prestel, it features essays by the exhibition’s curators Helaine Posner and Nancy Princenthal followed by texts by art historians Tom McDonough, Griselda Pollock, and Kristine Stiles.

The exhibition is co-curated by Helaine Posner, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York and Nancy Princenthal, art critic and former Senior Editor at Art in America.





Above left:
Dara Birnbaum
still from Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978-79
Video, color, sound, 5 min., 50 sec.
Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

Above right:
Laurie Simmons
First Bathroom, Woman Standing from
"Interiors," 1978
Cibachrome print, 3 1/2 x 5 inches
Courtesy of the artist


THE DECONSTRUCTIVE IMPULSE

Neuberger Museum of Art


www.neuberger.org/