Documentary. Unrated. 1 hour, 23 minutes. At the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax.
Early in the documentary “!Women Art Revolution,” an interviewee argues that feminist art, which reveled in its own messiness, emerged as the antithesis to minimalism. This snippet is invaluable to appreciating a film that, up to that point, feels stubbornly disjointed — a string of topic- and decade-spanning interviews that shoot in divergent vectors from the subject at hand.
Lynn Hershman Leeson, an artist in her own right and part of that movement, directs and intermittently narrates this fractured set of conversations that she conducted over the course of 40 years and that recount the struggles of female artists in a male-dominated world.
Her subjects include the brassy Judy Chicago, whose “Dinner Party” piece created quite the uproar, thanks to its numerous depictions of female anatomy; Marcia Tucker, who responded to being fired from the Whitney Museum by founding Manhattan’s New Museum; Cuban- born artist Ana Mendieta, whose husband, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, stood trial for her murder (he was later acquitted); and the Guerrilla Girls, who objected to art museums’ insistence on showing only work by white men with clever high jinks while wearing gorilla masks.
These were heady times. But while some of the interviews convey fascinating tales, others don’t shed much light on what must have been an epic battle.
Part of the problem may be that the director knows her subjects and their histories too well. But we weren’t all there watching the struggle take place, and a more clearly stated thesis or a simple delineation of cause and effect could have gone a long way.
Still, the film does pique a certain curiosity. Several of the artists interviewed have intriguing pasts that are only superficially glimpsed in the film.
People on the street who are interviewed as the documentary begins are asked to name three female artists. Most can name just one: Frida Kahlo. Clearly, there’s still work to be done.
