Karen LeCocq at Craftswoman House

Feminist Art in the 1970s: A Brief Overview of the Westcoast Women's Art Movement

a lecture by Karen LeCocq

Sunday February 20th, 3pm

Craftswoman House, 929 North Oakland Avenue, Pasadena 91104

Professional artist and lecturer, Karen LeCocq is a mixed media sculptor who has shown nationally and internationally in galleries as well as major museums, among them: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and The Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA. LeCocq was a member of the first feminist art program under the direction of Judy Chicago at CSUF and the second feminist art program at California Institute of the Arts under the direction of Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. At Cal Arts in 1971-72, she participated in the creation of WOMANHOUSE, the first public feminist collaborative art project and exhibition in the world. The project received international attention and was reviewed in TIME magazine as well as art publications around the globe.

Unveiled

Craftswoman House will open her doors with the group exhibition Unveiled, a show that features works by six west-coast artists who explore feminist content. The exhibit includes works by Launa Bacon, Ursula Brookbank, Wendy Kveck, Freya Prowe, Cindy Rehm, Angela Simione.

Unveiled coincides with the 39th anniversary of Womanhouse, the first public exhibition of feminist art organized in January 1972, by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. The original collaborative project was presented in a deserted mansion in Hollywood, whereas the new venue is a 1924 Craftsman House located in the historic Orange Heights tract of Pasadena.

Unveiled includes painting, drawing, video, and site-specific room installations created in memory of Womanhouse. The library will be transformed into a haunting underwater environment with Brookbank’s The Splendor Trap. Through a process of staining and accumulation, Rehm will create The Curse, her response to Chicago’s Menstruation Bathroom. The kitchen will highlight Kveck’s Meateater, which features a reclining woman laid out like a body, readied for dissection. Bacon will present her video I Sat Beauty on my Knees; Found Her Bitter, Therefore I Injured Her in the study where the work was performed and filmed. Simone and Prowe will occupy the living room and hallway with their paintings. The garden will also feature installations by Bacon and Brookbank.