Moving Space: Why Women's Art Matters in Postmodern History

Michelle Varinata
May 5, 2017
2 min read

Say what you want to say about the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), but compared to most museums in New York, the MoMA never fails to dazzle with its newest exhibit. Instead of showcasing another male artist, the museum decided to launch a new exhibit centered on women called Moving Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction. While women have generally been overlooked in their contribution and history of postmodern abstraction, the MoMA's new exhibit aims to correct our education about the Postmodern Abstraction era.

Chronologically, the rooms are categorized by the medium and type of abstraction. Starting off with the mid-1940s to 1950s, paintings by Louise Bourgeois, Joan Mitchell and Elaine de Kooning fill the room. While male Abstract Expressionist artists like Jackson Pollock tend to go for intangible and completely abstract gestures in their work, the aforementioned females aren't afraid to play along with their game. While Bourgeois does a radical take of a black and white self-portrait, Mitchell and de Kooning go for a riot of colors that obliterate white space. This is a forewarning that the next parts of the exhibit will become more abstract than the first room.

In the following gallery, sculptures are displayed in front of the paintings. Instead of showcasing human forms, they are shown in extremely geometric forms that boggle the eye. While the majority of them are placed in front of paintings, you are meant to walk around them and wonder in awe. One sculpture that stands out is Linda Bo Bardi's Poltrana Bowl, a circular-style navy blue chair that sits at the corner of the gallery.

Later, the exhibit progresses into completely non-representational forms. Whether it be Yayoi Kusama's Accumulation of Nets. No. 7, Sheila Hick's Prayer Rug or Carol Rama's Spurting Out, these women demonstrate that abstraction can be expressed in many forms outside of painting. All in all, this is an exhibit that modern art lovers must see.