Choosing a profession isn’t easy, but for feminist artist Miriam Schapiro it seemed as if her craft was her destiny.
Schapiro, born in 1923, began her artistic career at an early age. Her father, a painter, got her started painting when she was only 6.
“He used to teach me and give me assignments,” she said. “He wanted me to do one picture a day, but I wanted to play and generally the night before he came home on the weekends, I’d do all of the paintings.”
Schapiro, a leading figure in feminist artwork, is visiting MSU for the second time since the mid-1980s. She gave a guest lecture on campus Wednesday and will hold conversations at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. today at Kresge Art Museum, where she has some work on display. The events are sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program and the Jewish Studies Program.
Her art includes pottery, textiles, costume and craft work.
A Toronto native, Schapiro was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and went to high school at the same school her mother attended. Schapiro then left New York to attend Iowa University.
Her interest in women’s issues came while she was teaching at an art school in California in the late 1960s, during the same time many American women became concerned with their social status.
“I got involved when women were excited about being real people, instead of people who were important to society because they can bear children,” Schapiro said.
Along with fellow artist Judy Chicago, Schapiro constructed her first major feminist art project, “Women House.”
The project is a remodeled mansion in California designed to show how women see life and how they grow up. It was her first work to show aspects of women’s lifestyles.
“It’s completely done in the eyes of a woman, there was no man standing behind us telling us what to do,” Schapiro said.
In 1970, her interest in feminism was extended into her artwork. Schapiro no longer wanted to be referred to as just an artist, she became a “woman artist.”
“In the ’70s lots of women artists gave special attention to women,” philosophy and women’s studies Professor Marilyn Frye said.
Although there are many political issues in her paintings, her current exhibit, “Works on Paper, A Thirty Year Retrospective,” being shown in Kresge Art Museum, also involves many exciting paintings. Many of her drawings involve dancing, theatrical performances and theaters.
Schapiro said her inspiration comes from a desire to show the fantasy life women forced to live restricted lives throughout history imagined.
“I’m a painter. A lot of this, political as it may be, comes from the urge to make a rich, lively and beautiful painting,” Schapiro said. “I like the joy of life as much as everything.”
Schapiro’s work has been adopted by women around the world.
“She’s a terrific artist that people interested in art and or feminism should find interesting,” said April Kingsley, Kresge Art Museum’s curator.
