The Brodsky Center at PAFAMiriam Schapiro was a pioneering artist of the feminist art movement. Her work blurs the line between craft and fine art, challenging the hierarchies of the institution to include marginalized types of domestic craft and incorporate feminist imagery. She worked to resurrect the reputations of women artists who had been forgotten or dismissed by art historians. Schapiro’s interest in fabric and sewing, which she often used to create abstract compositions or vibrant colors and hard-edged forms, was influential to the formation of the Pattern and Decoration movement.
Schapiro is a key figure in the women’s art movement of the 1970s. She founded the groundbreaking Feminist Art Program at CalArts in 1971. Its first project was Womanhouse (1971–1972), a collaborative effort in which twenty-three women transformed an abandoned mansion in Los Angeles by creating rooms that addressed women’s experiences. At about the same […]