Chapter from New Book by Maryann DiEdwardo

Maura Reilly, in the introduction to the book Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art, a record of the exhibition of global feminisms organized by the Brooklyn Museum March 23 to July 1, 2007, remarks that “the year 2007 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Women Artists at the Brooklyn Museum. From its inception, Global Feminisms has defined itself in counterpoint to the pioneering exhibition called Women Artists 1550–1950 organized in 1976 by Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, which presented a historical survey of women artists from the Renaissance to the modern era. Women Artists opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in December 1976 and ended its four-venue tour at the Brooklyn Museum in November 1977. Unlike Women Artists, which has the specific goal of reclaiming women lost from the Western historical canon, Global Feminisms aims to present a multitude of feminist voices from across cultures. In doing so, the exhibition challenges the often exclusionary discourse of contemporary art, which assumes that the West is the center and relegates all else to the periphery” (15).

Interpretation through the vision of feminism establishes my view of the Pocahontas Archive. My paradigm for feminist practice beyond the Pocahontas Archive is to evaluate current works in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in Brooklyn, New York, as well as works collected in the volume titled Art and Feminism (Themes and Movements) (2001), edited by Helena Reckitt and Peggy Phelan; and Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art (2007), edited by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin. “Feminist Practice in the Art of Pocahontas Viewed Through Feminist Art Theory” reveals curtains surrounding stereotypes, gender status and power in our postcolonial era; the level and substance of most passion for [Native American women] … has been selective, stereotyped, and damaging (Green).

By infusing ideas about Pocahontas’s Native American identity through art historiography, I study her assimilation in mythic terms appropriate for feminist practices, and then extend my inquisition to feminist art theory present in the study of Disney’s first eco-feminist heroine.

As we explore the art of Pocahontas in the light of critical race theory, which has its roots in the more established fields of anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, and politics, we see that the notions of social construction and reality of race and discrimination are ever present in the writings of known contemporary critical race theorists such as Derrick Bell, Mari Matsuda, Richard Delgado, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and William Tate, as well as pioneers in the field, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Max Weber. This field has its roots firmly planted in American soil, mainly due to the racial makeup of our country. A most impressive site, Critical Race Theory Resource Guide, created through Drexel University, is available online at the URL: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jp49/.

To enhance primary source material, I evaluate current works in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in Brooklyn, New York. Ultimately, I propose that feminist practice is essential in the study of Pocahontas art, to preserve, to reveal, and to retain the memory of Pocahontas and to further develop her assimilation.

First of all, I practice feminine reminiscences to detect messages that decode myths about the art of Pocahontas. My intentions are supported by scholars who write for the recent work titled Women and Power in Native North America. The editors Laura F. Klein and Lillian A. Ackerman find the myth of Pocahontas as vital to her legend (Klein and Ackerman) to reveal that Pocahontas is “the quintessential Indian Princess of American lore.” But Pocahontas art often presents “curtains surrounding stereotypes, gender status and power” (Klein and Ackerman) that reflect the egocentrism of the artist who wished to further the assimilation of the character of Pocahontas. The Pocahontas Archive provides views of the artists’ interpretations of her story and assimilation. For example, my documentation voices feminist art theory within the new historicism, historiography, and feminist art theory.

Robinson, in nine chapters, claims that “archives help support the construction of our histories, they have a pedagogical purpose. However … the aim is not to provide a history of the movement, its chronology, events and people … but to chart the strands of debate and the areas of concern for feminists. Thus it is the interrelation of the texts that is intended to be productive for the reader.” Each chapter can be presented as a subject for study. The introductions to each chapter are designed for both general and undergraduate readers, and provide a descriptive summary of the discussions in the text. On pages 24 and 25, Robinson includes an essay portion by Judy Chicago, written in 1972. From the work Everywoman, Chicago concludes, “Let me go back to Georgia O’Keefe and say that I believe her to be the first great female artist because she bases her work on the experience of a female. … Every female artist has to evaluate for herself the nature of a female and the societal definitions … build on the self-struggle … a woman’s work cannot be perceived accurately and will never be perceived accurately until women are perceived accurately. With the exception of work by women who are attempting to paint or make art like men and who have accepted the framework of art making dictated by men and by what serves men. In an attempt to compensate for the often uncomprehending responses, the woman artist thrives to prove that she’s as good as a man … and the brutal fact is that in the … fighting for her life, she loses herself. For instead of deriving strength, power, and creative energy from her femaleness, she flees it and in fleeing it, profoundly diminishes herself. She must turn and claim what is uniquely hers, her female identity. But to do that is the most difficult of tasks; it is to embrace the untouchable and to love what is despised” (Robinson, 295).

Can feminist ideals be perpetuated without writing about or representing women, gendered practice, or gendered identity? How have the critical reformulations by which feminism challenged historical and critical discussions twenty or so years ago been integrated into current curricula, institutional politics, and individual working methods (Schor)? By nature, writing about an assimilated woman who is a mythic figure is difficult. In our Pocahontas Archive, #148 (1911), Pocahontas originally was an illustration in Liberty Belles: Eight Epochs in the Making of the American Girl, published in New York by Bobs-Merrill Company, 1912. There are eight colored plates. The book is the largest, scarcest, and most impressive of Howard Chandler Christy’s books. The section illustrations are: Pocahontas; The Puritan Girl; The Colonial Girl; The Revolutionary Girl; The Pioneer Girl; The Dixie Girl; The Western Girl; and The American Girl. Scholars agree that “Christy defined his idealized ‘girl’ as ‘high bred,’ aristocratic and dainty though not always silken-skirted; a woman with tremendous self-respect.’ He saw Pocahontas as not only a ‘Christy Girl,’ but also as one of the eight ‘Liberty Belles,’ famous females of American history who had prefigured the independent young women of his generation, and so had led to their ‘making’ or evolution. He published a book about his “Liberty Belles” in 1912 and developed his image of Pocahontas into a six-foot oil painting” (Rasmussen and Tilton). Costume is essential to his design, as is her demeanor. She is beautiful yet contemplative. Howard Chandler Christy manipulates the unconscious imaginations of his audience. His stylistic talent ultimately serves as the main element of art. Pocahontas, as “Christy Girl” with costume, and setting as symbolic imagery, conjure suspense and tension to exhibit an evolutionary vision of the assimilation of the young Powhatan woman. Assimilated into a woman who is sensitive to her own emotions, Pocahontas as “Christy Girl” shows a resistant young woman who has lost her own identity.

Illustration #164 in Ed Gallagher’s digital collection of Pocahontas art represents Pocahontas in a different story. A sketch representing the design of #164 (Lafayette College “Howard Chandler Christy Papers”) depicts a conceptual gesture of placement of figures and space. Patricia Pasda, illustrator, explains that “The 1926 image was designed to be an illustration for a magazine cover. The conceptual design in the sketchbooks donated to the Lafayette College Howard Chandler Christy Papers VII 2. Sketchbooks from the Foster Memorial: ca. 1944, in pencil, show a plan for the initial design for the 1926 illustration.” Diane Shaw, Lafayette College Special Collections Librarian and College Archivist, notes that the 1926 illustration may have had a “connection to a story in the volume.”

Furthermore, when the feminist writer Clara Sue Kidwell reexamines Pocahontas as a woman, a different person emerges. “Kidwell presents an assertive and culturally appropriate woman behind the European façade” (Kidwell). As in my studies on the image #148 in our Lehigh University Pocahontas Archive, I see the myth of Pocahontas, rather than the woman who is contemporary. Klein and Ackerman find that “she represents the princess. While she is not a drudge and certainly not sexually promiscuous, she is nevertheless submissive to men. She is not as much an independent actor as she is a maternal protector and helpmate to the male European actors. Stereotypically, then, Native American women could be viewed as demeaned drudges who followed or were mired in the backward traditions of their cultures or as picturesque ladies who took on the virtues of upper-class European society and left Native American traditions behind them (Klein and Ackerman).

Rayna Green concludes: “My review of the literature has left me with the conviction that Native American women have neither been neglected nor forgotten. They have captured hearts and minds, but, as studies of other women have demonstrated, the level and substance of most passion for them has been selective, stereotyped and damaging” (Green). Gender bias represented in literature and art that Green reveals is present in Disney’s first eco-feminist heroine: “Chief Powhatan, a stern but loving father, wants Pocahontas to marry dour warrior Kocoum. The princess is not interested because, as she explains in her first song, something or someone more exciting waits ‘Just Around the River Bend.’ A tub load of greedy settlers is sailing toward what would soon be Jamestown. While the others are expecting to find gold, John Smith is searching for something more spiritual. Smith is out enjoying nature while his shipmates are out felling forests and strip-mining for gold. Smith and Pocahontas fall in love, encouraged by Grandmother Willow (a talking tree). While the couple cuddle and converse about ecology beside a waterfall, their people are preparing for war” (Kempley).

Lauren Dundes suggests that (28 August, 2001) “Disney’s animated heroine Pocahontas has been touted as a new type of protagonist differing from her predecessors whose lives revolve around men. Pocahontas’ romance eventually does become subordinate to her role in protecting the social fabric of her village. Yet in placing the needs of her community before her own personal desires, she fulfills societal expectations of today wherein young women are supposed to progress from selfish absorption in relationships to selfless dedication nurturing others. Pocahontas, then, models the submersion of a young woman’s desires to allow a commitment to selfless altruism” (Dundes).

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052; Telephone: (718) 638-5000; TTY: (718) 399-8440; Admission: Suggested contribution: $8; students with valid ID: $4; adults 62 and over: $4; members: free; children under 12: free; hours: Wednesday–Friday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday: 11 a.m.–6 p.m. The Brooklyn Museum, housed in a 560,000-square-foot, Beaux-Arts building, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Its world-renowned permanent collections range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and represent a wide range of cultures. Only a 30-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, with its own newly renovated subway station, the museum is part of a complex of 19th-century parks and gardens that also includes Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Prospect Park Zoo.

From February 16–October 19, 2008, at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th floor, Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, the first US survey of the renowned artist’s work, features some fifty pieces from every aspect of Amer’s career as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, performer, garden designer, and installation artist. These include the iconic Barbie Loves Ken, Ken Loves Barbie (1995/2002), The Reign of Terror (2005), and Big Black Kansas City Painting—RFGA (2005), as well as a generous selection of works never before exhibited in this country (Brooklyn Museum). While she describes herself as a painter and has won international recognition for her abstract canvases embroidered with erotic motifs, Ghada Amer is a multimedia artist whose entire body of work is infused with the same ideological and aesthetic concerns. The submission of women to the tyranny of domestic life, the celebration of female sexuality and pleasure, the incomprehensibility of love, the foolishness of war and violence, and an overall quest for formal beauty constitute the territory that she explores and expresses in her art. In addition to the erotic paintings for which she is most famous, numerous works devoted to world politics are exhibited, including some of her more recent antiwar pieces (Brooklyn Museum).

From October 31, 2008–February 8, 2009, at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th floor, the exhibition Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection shows with nearly fifty works focusing on recent acquisitions and major loans, including works by artists such as Kiki Smith, Tracey Emin, Tracey Moffatt, and Lorna Simpson (Brooklyn Museum). The exhibition title refers to the idea of the “master’s house” from two perspectives: the museum as the historical domain of male artists and professed masters of art history, and the house as the supposed proper province of women. Most of the paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and videos in the exhibition are by self-declared feminists and artists of later generations working within the historic framework of feminist art. The widely diverse forms and ideas on view suggest that feminist art is not limited to a specific look or reading (Brooklyn Museum). Among the works on view are Carrie Mae Weems’s Untitled (Man Smoking/Malcolm X), 1990, which explores human experience from the vantage point of an African American female subject; a “femmage” painting by Miriam Schapiro, titled Agony in the Garden, that pays homage to Frida Kahlo; a haunting print by Kara Walker, of a self-empowered heroine from the American antebellum South; and a “bunny” sculpture by Nayland Blake that challenges constructions of masculinity. Among the important loans from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections is one of Hannah Wilke’s major sculptures, Rosebud, from 1976. Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection is the latest in a series of exhibitions in the main temporary exhibition space of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The exhibition is co-curated by Maura Reilly, curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Nicole Caruth, former manager of Interpretative Materials, Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn Museum).

Works Cited

Art

Amer, Ghada. Barbie Loves Ken, Ken Loves Barbie. (1995/2002).

__________. The Reign of Terror. (2005).

__________. Big Black Kansas City Painting—RFGA. (2005).

Art Exhibitions

Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection. Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. October 31, 2008–February 8, 2009. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th floor. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/burning_down_the_house/

Ghada Amer: Love Has No End. February 16–October 19, 2008. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th floor.

Online Art

“Pocahontas Archive.” Lehigh University. Dr. Ed Gallagher, Digital Curator. http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/pocahontas/history.php

Articles

Dundes, Lauren. 28 August, 2001. The Social Science Journal.

Edgerton, Gary; Jackson, Kathy Merlock. “Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney, the ‘White Man’s Indian,’ and the Marketing of Dreams.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, v 24, n 2 (Summer, 1996): 90 (9 pages). “The Walt Disney Company’s animated feature Pocahontas (1995) offers a conflicted, historically inaccurate account of a famous Native American that nevertheless lends itself to a more substantive consideration of the subject and related issues.” (America: History & Life)

Felperin, Leslie. “Pocahontas.” (Movie Reviews). Sight and Sound, v 5, n 10 (Oct. 1995): 57 (2 pages).

Green, Rayna. “Pocahontas Perplex.” Massachusetts Review, 16 (Autumn). 698–714.

__________. “Native American Women.” Signs 6.2, 248–267.

Henke, Jill Birnie; Umble, Diane Zimmerman; Smith, Nancy J. “Construction of the female self: feminist readings of the Disney heroine.” Women’s Studies in Communication, v 19, n 2 (Summer, 1996): 229 (21 pages). Walt Disney’s films such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas portray the evolution of the female character. Belle, Ariel, and Pocahontas are more assertive of their rights than Cinderella and heroines of the previous films. The earlier films portray women as weak and helpless. Gradually the Disney heroine finds her voice and strength. However, the female voice makes little impression on the hegemonically patriarchal status quo. The lessons viewers garner from Disney films are ambiguous and depict the troubled arena of postfeminism.

Jackson, Kathy Merlock. “Introduction: Walt Disney: Its persuasive products and cultural contexts.” Journal of Popular Film & Television. Summer 1996. Vol. 24, Iss. 2; p. 50 (3 pages).

Kempley, Rita. “Disney’s ‘Pocahontas.’ ” Washington Post. Electronic version. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-rv/style/longterm/movies/videos/pocahontas.htm

Kershaw, Sarah. “Teachers to Clarify Pocahontas Depiction.” (attempts to correct misinformation in Disney animated film) (Education Pages) New York Times, v 144 (Wed., July 12, 1995): A16(N), B6(L), col 1, 24 col in.

Kidwell, Clara Sue. “Indian Women as Cultural Mediators.” Ethnohistory 39 (Spring). 97–107.

Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn. “Disney’s ‘Politically Correct’ Pocahontas.” (animated film) (Race in Contemporary American Cinema: Part 5) Cineaste v 21, n 4 (Fall, 1995): 36.

Klein, Laura F., and Lillian A. Ackerman, Eds. Women and Power in Native North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.

Kutsuzawa, Kiyomi. “Disney’s Pocahontas: Reproduction of Gender, Orientalism, and the Strategic Construction of Racial Harmony in the Disney Empire.” Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal / Revue d’Études sur les Femmes. 2: 43–53. 2004.

__________. “Disney’s Pocahontas: Reproduction of Gender, Orientalism, and the Strategic Construction of Racial Harmony in the Disney Empire.” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies. Dec. 31, 2000. Vol. 6, Iss. 4; p. 39.

Lind, Michael. “Dishonest Injun: Pocahontas Exposed.” (Virginia history vs. movie legends) New Republic, v 212, n 26 (June 26, 1995): 13.

Maslin, Janet. “Pocahontas.” (Movie Reviews) New York Times, v 144 (Fri., June 23, 1995): B10(N), C6(L), col 1, 22 col in.

Morgenstern, Joe. “Pocahontas.” (Movie Reviews) Wall Street Journal (Fri., June 16, 1995): A9(W), A11(E), col 1, 17 col in.

Native Americans in the Movies. UC Berkeley Library. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/IndigenousBib.html

NeSmith, Georgia. Feminist Historiography 1968–1993 [online]. 1994 [cited 8 January, 1997]. Available from: http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women/femhist.txt

“Deciphering Pocahontas: Unpackaging the commodification of a native American woman.” Critical Studies in Media Communication March 2001 v 18 i1 p 23(2).

Preda, Roxana. “The Angel in the Ecosystem Revisited: Disney’s Pocahontas and Postmodern Ethics.” In: From Virgin Land to Disney World : nature and its discontents in the USA of yesterday and today / edited by Bernd Herzogenrath. Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, c 2001.

Price, David Andrew. “The Real Pocahontas.” (historical facts about the Native American girl, and about her involvement with Captain John Smith, bear very little resemblance to the story presented in Walt Disney Co.’s new …) Wall Street Journal (Tue., June 13, 1995): A18(W), A18(E), col 3, 21 col in.

Reckitt, Helena, Ed. Art and Feminism. London: Phaidon, 2001.

Reilly, Maura and Nochlin, Linda, Eds. Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 2007.

Rowlett, Lori L. “Disney’s Pocahontas and Joshua’s Rahab in postcolonial perspective.” In: Culture, entertainment and the Bible / edited by George Aichele. Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, c 2000.

Sardar, Ziauddin. “Walt Disney and the double victimisation of Pocahontas.” Third Text, no 37 (Winter ’96–’97) pages 17–26.

Schor, Mira. “Contemporary Feminism: Art Practice, Theory, and Activism—An Intergenerational Perspective.” Art Journal. Winter, 1999. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_/ai_59552673

Shapiro, Laura. “Pocahontas.” (Movie Reviews) Newsweek, v 125, n 25 (June 19, 1995): 77.

Sharkey, Betsy. “Beyond Tepees and Totem Poles.” (In Pocahontas, a studio that once used ethnic stereotypes for laughs tries very hard not to offend. Walt Disney Pictures depicts Native Americans in a sensitive manner in its new children’s film.) New York Times, v 144, sec 2 (Sun,. June 11, 1995):H1(N), H1(L), col 2, 44 col in.

Silver, Marc. “Pocahontas, For Real.” (How Walt Disney movie Pocahontas compares to history) (includes related article). U.S. News & World Report, v 118, n 24 (June 19, 1995): 61 (4 pages).

Strong, Pauline Turner. “Animated Indians: Critique and Contradiction in Commodified Children’s Culture.” (Portrayal of Native Americans in films.) Cultural Anthropology, v 11, n 3 (August, 1996): 405 (20 pages). “The animated films Pocahontas and The Indian in the Cupboard show a harmonious world, but the commercialized image of the indigenous people is unrealistic and deceptive. Little Bear lives in a world without war and disease, where everything is under control and human relationships are free of tension. Pocahontas is shown as a symbol of tolerance and respect for life. Children can learn to respect the environment and other cultures by watching these films, but the ironies limit serious cultural critique.” (Expanded Academic Index).

Travers, Peter. “Pocahontas.” (Movie Reviews) Rolling Stone, n 712–3 (July 13, 1995): 115 (2 pages).

Electronic Book Review

Piepmeier, Alison. Postfeminism vs. the Third Wave. Online. Date of access: 22 September, 2008. http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/writingpostfeminism/reconfiguredrip2

Thesis

NeSmith, Georgia. Thesis. http://homepage.mac.com/georgia.nesmith/.Public/1-FRONT-MATTER.pdf