Sandswept

• Since the medieval era textiles have been increasingly linked with women and craft. Second-Wave Feminism sought to break the stigma of ‘women’s work’ and breakthrough the divide that defined and separated women’s crafts from men’s fine art.

• Even the groundbreaking art and design school started in 1919, called the Bauhaus, preached gender equality, but in practice they pushed women into the field of textiles. These women took on the medium as a challenge despite the gender discrimination by taking design and sculpture to new heights Kuemmerlein began her career 40 years later continuing on this tradition of using fiber in new ways.

• A now famous example of a textile of Second-Wave Feminism is Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, 1974-1979. Chicago created a place setting for each famous woman of history. Despite the strong feminist message and unquestionable skill of the artist, the male critic of the New York Times dismissed it as ‘kitsch.’