While Brazilian women artists in the 1960s and 1970s were hailed as key figures in the country’s art scene, and enjoyed a unique position in terms of visibility and prominence, they still faced adversity and constraints because of their gender. Although many of them repudiated the term feminism, they still employed feminist strategies. They addressed women’s emancipation in their work. This rejection was influenced by a complexity of issues: the view of the military dictatorship as the only enemy; the country’s patriarchal structure; the sexist attitudes of cultural agents; the disdain so much Left and Right for the feminist cause. Furthermore, the feminist movement was considered an enterprise orchestrated by the United States, and rejecting this movement was considered an anti-imperialist gesture. This talk will give a nuanced account of the adversities and contradictions faced by these artists, even if they admittedly didn’t feel discriminated against because of their gender.
