Exhibitions for Immediate Impact

While a slide registry provided museum curators and gallerists with access to the artwork of women, at the time, most museums scheduled exhibitions a year or more in advance. Recognizing that most major museum and gallery shows were often offered to men, WARM members made exhibiting their artwork a priority. Rather than waiting for galleries and museums to approach them, WARM members harnessed the power of their new network to organize exhibitions on their own. Their shows challenged the accepted canon of art history, which was largely dominated by white men, often by addressing feminist themes and showing the work of women only.
 

Women’s Erotic Art Show
Cedar Cultural Center, October 5–31, 1973 

Erotic art is a provocative theme no matter the timeframe or the artist—exciting, challenging and inciting curiosity. Conceived of by Diane McLeod, this exhibition included works exploring a distinctly female definition of eroticism. The exhibition was arranged for the members of WARM by Diane McLeod, Susan Fiene, Lynne Lockie and Carole Fisher. Handwritten planning notes outlined the parameters of the exhibition:
 

For the purposes of this exhibition, “erotic” will be defined as:

  1. a piece of art that is designed to arouse one sexually

  2. a piece of art that may be used in the act of lovemaking

  3. a piece of art that depicts an erotic act

  4. a piece of art which by its associations may remind the viewer of sex

We hope to include a wide range of erotic art in this show, from the subtly sensual to the [...] nearly pornographic.

The poster and an accompanying flyer were collaboratively designed, screen printed and hand-cut by Diane McLeod and Susan Fiene. The curving edges of the poster outline the image of a woman’s torso from her own point of view, as if she’s looking down at herself. This puts the viewer in the eyes of the woman—the viewer sees the woman’s body from the perspective of the woman. The poster is a perfect example of feminist art’s ability to subvert the “male gaze” (a phrase that wouldn’t be coined until 1975 by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey).