Mary Beth Edelson

Alongside Carolee Schneeman and Judy Chicago, Mary Beth Edelson is considered one of America's "first generation feminist artists." Born in Indiana in 1933, Edelson became an active member in the emerging feminist movement as well as the civil rights movement during the mid-1950s. In 1968, she founded the very first Conference for Women in the Visual Arts; in the seventies, her work began to engage with historical goddess figures such as Baubo, the ancient Greek Goddess of Mirth, Sheela-na-Gig, the figurative carvings of women with exaggerated vulvas found throughout Europe. To quote art writer Lucy Lippard, "Mary Beth Edelson’s work arises from Feminism’s double strength. Like the great Goddess to whom she has dedicated her art, she has (at least) two aspects—political rage and life-giving affirmation. The two merge in an individual identification with the collective ego." In Some Living American Women Artists (1972), one of Edelson's most famous works, the artist appropriated an image of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper, replacing the heads of the Lord and His Disciplines with women like Georgia O'Keepe and Louise Bourgeois. 

Edelson’s work has been featured in over 90 books and is widely reviewed in the United States and abroad. Her work has appeared in art institutions across the world including the New Museum in New York and the Tate in London. Her work is in the collections of major museums including: the Gugenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York. Edelson is a founder of Heresies Magazine and Women’s Action Coalition (WAC), and in 1994, she produced Combat Zone: Campaign Hq. Against Domestic Violence, sponsored by Creative Time.