Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York

Hannah Wilke, "Kobenhavn" (1975). Kneaded erasers on postcard on painted wood panel, 16 x 18 in.

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In "Daughters of the Revolution: Women and Collage," gallerist Pavel Zoubok gathered 51 works by 34 female artists spanning 1947 to the present. The titular revolution was meant to refer to both feminism and the development of collage as a new medium.

Many works addressed gender roles directly. Martha Rosler contemplated domestic trappings in a 1966-72 photomontage that showed a fragmented female torso encased by an oven. Karen Shaw’s Summantics Flyer: Unity 89 (1977) created poetic equations from 1970s supermarket circulars by systematically converting numbers into words. Miriam Schapiro’s My Nosegays Are for Captives (1976) layered an apron and transparent handkerchiefs, their preciousness undercut by the title. Donna Sharrett incorporated rose petals and embroidery; Ann Shostrom’s Strawberries (2009) resembled a 1940s quilt.

Some works reveled in materiality, such as Louise Nevelson’s Untitled (1983), an assemblage of scrap wood, paper, and mirror, and Hannah Wilke’s Kobenhavn (1975), which sprouted delectable kneaded erasers. Other collages forayed into pure abstraction, as in Lee Krasner’s Culminating Point (1979), in which the expressionist spontaneity of violent reds was juxtaposed with a careful control of the process.

While the works varied, there was an aesthetic continuity that made it difficult to differentiate a collage made in the 1950s from one finished yesterday. This is likely a result of Zoubok’s taste, not a refutation of historical development. In general, newer works employed more materials associated with ornament and craft, while older ones were more political. What "Daughters" deftly illustrated was not an intrinsic essence in collage by women, but that this rich and diverse territory continues to expand.

"Daughters of the Revolution" originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2009 Table of Contents.