Dr. Irene Nero, who teaches nineteenth century, modern and contemporary art history classes at Southeastern, is to present a lecture about female artists who refused to be anonymous and demanded to be recognized in artistic dialogue half a century ago. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 7 at 5 p.m. at the Hammond Regional Arts Center.

“The lecture is about the women artists in America in the 1960s to early 70s who were finally being recognized at the time the male artists were embracing the idea, based on literary theory of Roland Barthes, that said art needs no known creator, and it is still art,” said Dr. Irene Nero. “The women were tired of having been marginalized throughout history, so they wanted name recognition. The women were inspired by issues of social change in the air: hippie counter culture, Vietnam protests and civil rights. The male artists were touting ‘Death of the artistic author’ as a progression of ideas following the Abstract Expressionists’ success after World War II.”

Nero teaches a history of women artists course in which she discusses women’s struggle during the 1960s and 70s for name recognition in what was then a male dominated discipline.

“I hope they will see how hard women artists had to struggle, even in the 1960s, to be recognized in the art world,” said Nero about her hopes for those attending the lecture. “It is different today, and these women were trail-blazers.”

Nero has been researching this subject since she began studying contemporary art history over 16 years ago.

“I always start with a published document, an article or book, and then continue until many of my questions are answered,” said Nero of her research. “I always have more questions because I am curious. Since I teach this every semester, I am always researching for new, relevant documents.”

One topic that Nero discusses in one of her classes is minimal art, which embraces the idea of artists focusing on objects and then reducing them to the bare minimum.

“When the artist chooses to say the idea is the art and not the object, therefore the object is not signed, then we have the death of the author,” said Nero.  

Nero hopes that a variety of faculty, staff and students will come to the lecture to learn more about female artists and their struggle to be recognized.

“Today, if a woman artist was being anonymous, it would be a very different concept than in the 1960s and 1970s when they were mainly rejected in the art world,” said Nero.