The Feminist Art of Self-Education

Abstract

Sociologist Elizabeth Long has charted the emergence of women’s reading groups in nineteenth-century America. ‘The women who founded literary clubs’, Long (2004, 337) tells us, ‘were aflame with the then revolutionary desire for education and self-development, which they called “self-culture”.’ Comparable aspirations continued to fuel a drive amongst women to organize together within reading and publishing groups, usually outside of official institutions, well into the twentieth century. This ‘revolutionary desire’ for self-education has also been evident in the UK women’s art and art history movement, although it has not been addressed in thorough detail. This article therefore seeks to situate an overlooked history of artistic reading and publishing communities in relation to an established body of theory in literary and cultural studies. These theoretical materials will illuminate the importance that reading and self-education (either in person or as part of a periodical network) had in establishing solidarity, and generating debate, within a flourishing art and art history movement. The second half of this article focuses on a specific case study. FAN: Feminist Art News (1980–1993) was an independent, grassroots publication that grew out of the Women Artists’ Newsletter in London. Temporary editorial collectives published themed issues on a quarterly basis. This article contends that it is no coincidence the subject of art education formed the focus of the periodical’s first issue, as well as a subsequent issue four years later. This indicates the significance of a reflexive auto-didacticism to second-wave feminism, as well as gesturing towards the long history of ‘education and self-improvement’ that has fuelled women’s reading and study groups since the nineteenth century.

Keywords:

• feminism
• art
• magazines
• education
• pedagogy
• politics
• British art
• women’s art
• art schools
• periodical studies

Notes

1 As a counterpoint to this, Juliet Mitchell admits that the Group was ‘not so significant’, evidencing how different individuals’ experience of an event can be. See Kelly et al. (2015).

2 The History Group also published an issue of the Women’s Liberation magazine Shrew in 1970, thus publicising and disseminating its discussions with a broader WLM audience.

3 Here I’m borrowing David Abrahamson’s term ‘reader-viewers’ (2015), a useful phrase that takes on additional valences when considering an art magazine.

4 For more on feminist writing in Art History, see Horne (2018).

5 Issues no.1 – no.10 lack volume designation but constitute vol.1. More confusingly, some of the early issues are undated so, although it seems likely no.10 was published in early 1984, this is based on the author’s guesswork.

6 The editorial of volume 2 number 2, edited by Katy Deepwell on the subject of ‘Women Painting Today’, announced that the ‘News and Events’ section would be discontinued as it was an area better covered by the Women Artists Slide Library Newsletter.

7 For example, Cate Elwes wrote: ‘It becomes obvious that until colleges employ a substantially larger number of women, our male oriented art education will remain unchanged.’

8 Although not the focus of this article, FAN’s contribution to rethinking the relative status of art, design and craft was invaluable. For more information see Jefferies (2016).

9 Old Mistresses was the title of a 1974 exhibition in Baltimore, and a 1981 book by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. The phrase neatly demonstrates the extent to which gender is encoded in culture (language), as the art historical term ‘Old Master’ has no female equivalent.

10 These changes were introduced from No.7 ‘Women’s Space’ (1982).

11 Catherine Grant’s article, in this special issue, explores Himid and Sulter’s editorial in greater detail. See also Anim-Addo (2014).