Mothers of Invention: The Feminist Roots of Contemporary Art

Mothers of Invention articulates the links that bind feminist ideas to the evolution of contemporary art. This is a project that allowed each of us to delve into ideas that have been central to our thinking for over forty years. Digging deep into four crucial practices, we were able to illuminate how the feminist revolution also sparked an artistic one. We uncovered evidence of the ways that feminist ideas like mutualism, impurity, corporality and return to the handmade shook up a calcifying art establishment and provided the nourishment for new ideas and approaches to art. And we were able to trace the continuing influence of these ideas on artists today.

Our title and the organization of this book highlight the contributions of women artists to this transformative process. We began to think about the importance of certain pioneering women in laying the groundwork for current conceptions of performance, craft, abstraction and ecofeminism. These figures are indeed Mothers. The possibilities they gave birth to have gone on to shape today’s art world. We pay homage to their nurturing influences by opening each chapter with a photograph of a key figure in each of our narratives. These historical images serve as a link between the feminist revolution and the art of today.

“In one genre after the next, with clarity and a wealth of insight, the essays here show how critical innovations by women artists have been not merely additions or correctives to established art history, but have served as the beating, living motor force that has kept the entire corpus of recent art alive and vital.”
Ben Davis, National Art Critic, Artnet News

“Mothers of Invention, Heartney, Posner, Princenthal, and Scott have given us the most comprehensive and convincing argument for why women artists should not be seen as outliers, second thoughts, or 'nice to haves', but rather integral to our understanding of both the contemporary moment and to the history of art itself.”
Hall W. Rockefeller, Founder of Less Than Half

Mothers of Invention is a vital contribution to the ongoing re-evaluation of women's role in the evolution of contemporary art. These four remarkable writers draw on decades of experience to create a narrative that profoundly reshapes our understanding of art today.”
Susan Fisher Sterling, PhD, The Alice West Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Praise for Mothers of Invention

Researching and writing Mothers of Invention