Art History Film Series

Join us for this special two-part film series. Both films are free and open to the public; no ticket required.  Stay afterwards to contribute to the narrative of women in art history at Mia’s Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon.

10:30 a.m.
Film: Colored Frames

With concise interview segments and impressionistic video collages, Colored Frames is a documentary showcasing the works of Black artists, from the Civil Rights era to today, as well as their struggle for visibility and acceptance in the mainstream art world. The film explores the conversation of art and the Black experience and seeks to eliminate years of negative stereotyping and assumptions that come with images of Blackness in America. As legendary artist Benny Andrews puts it, Black artists seek to be included on the basis of quality, or excluded “on the basis that its not acceptable,” Andrews implores, “not because it’s Black.”

Directed by Lerone D. Wilson, 2007. Runtime 56 minutes. English, Closed Captioned.

11:30 a.m.
!Women Art Revolution

An entertaining and revelatory “secret history” of Feminist Art, !Women Art Revolution deftly illuminates this under-explored movement through more than forty years of compiled conversations, observations, archival footage and works of visionary artists, historians, curators, and critics. Starting from its roots in 1960s antiwar and civil rights protests, the film details major developments in women’s art through the 1970s and explores how the tenacity and courage of these pioneering artists resulted in what is now widely regarded as the most significant art movement of the late 20th century. With a rousing score by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, !W.A.R. features artists like The Guerilla Girls, Yvonne Rainer, Judy Chicago, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, and countless other groundbreaking figures in an intimate portrayal of their fight to break down barriers facing women both in the art world and society at large.

Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson, 2010. Runtime 83 minutes. English.