Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography

Ok, so I go back and forth on Women in…series. I don’t like that they’re separated out like some special group. BUT I’m pretty stoked about MOMA’s Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography show up through March 2011. Photography is this weird category that isn’t always included in the art category, and it is a major boy’s club. It can fall into the science category, what with all the math and chemistry, areas that women and girls haven’t been overly represented in.

This show includes over 200 pieces, ranging from Berenice Abbott (huge deal!) to Roni Horn to the prerequisite Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman and Diane Arbus. It also has some Fluxus wallpaper Yoko Ono made called Bottoms, assembled by George Maciunas from a still by her film Film Number 4 (Bottoms). Hehehe.

Guest of Cindy Sherman

This new–I guess some could call it a documentary–about Cindy Sherman is out.

This article from The American Prospect calls out director/Sherman’s former bf Paul Hasegawa-Overacker for misogyny, social climbing, and general macho crap. This article brings up some good points about the treatment of women in the male-dominated boy’s club art scene, and how even an art superstar like Sherman isn’t given a pass.

I want to see this film, if only to see Cindy Sherman in action. She’s managed to be one of the most enduring contemporary photographers.  Her Untitled Film Stills are classics.

I guess Paul Hasegawa-Overacker got famous after all, if only for riding on Sherman’s coattails.