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Underappreciated women art pioneers of the ’60s

At Flavorwire, Alison Nastasi unearths the vital work of ten female artists from the '60s who’ve been largely forgotten by official art history, including Alma Thomas, Marjorie Strider, Elaine Sturtevant, Corita Kent, and others. As Nastasi writes:

The tumultuous decade of the ‘60s saw women artists redefining themselves, shifting the male gaze and narrating the feminist, sociological, and political movements happening around them. The art world is only now starting to place their pioneering contributions into context. Here, we offer several underappreciated, and in some cases, forgotten, women artists for consideration.

Here is Nastasi writing on the French sculpture and performance artist Niki de Saint Phalle, who is pictured above:

French artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s Shoot Paintings of the ‘60s found the artist firing a .22 calibre rifle at bags of liquid pigment until they exploded onto a white surface. The works ”aimed an attack at the traditional views of art, religion, and patriarchal society as well as at the political situation that entwined the Cold War and the War in Algeria in a country—the United States—where carrying guns is legal.

Image of French artist Niki de Saint Phalle via The Red List.