Cambridge Scholars Publishing Flowers and Towers: Politics of Identity in the Art of the American "New Woman"

This book explores the meaning and symbolism of the flower motif in the art of women artists, from the nineteenth century to the present day. It begins with a discussion of the symbolic significance of the flower in canonical texts such as the Song of Songs, in which the female lover is likened to a “lily among the thorns,” and to an “enclosed garden.” These allegorical images permeated into Christian iconography, attaining various expressions in the plastic arts from the twelfth through nineteenth centuries. The heart of the book is a discussion of the meaning of the change in representations of the flower, and at the same time the appearance of amazing images of “masculine” skyscrapers, in the works of avant-garde American women artists during the 1920s and 30s, in three hubs of Modernist art: New York, California, and Mexico. Tessler explains how modernist artists of various fields of art – such as Glaspell, Stettheimer, O’Keeffe, Pelton, Cunningham, Mather, Modotti and Kahlo – were aware of the religious symbolism of the flower in Judaism and Christianity, and turned it into an emblem of the new modern woman with her own views of the world. Flowers and Towers concludes by presenting the works of contemporary feminist American artists such as Chicago and Schapiro, who pay tribute to those same Modernist artists by creating a new and daring image of the flower and using “feminine” materials and techniques that link them, as it were, to their spiritual mothers. Review Dr. Tessler is to be congratulated for calling attention to the centrality of flower and tower imagery across a variety of art forms, locales, and diverse artistic creators, something that is obvious once it has been pointed out, but has gone relatively unnoticed in critical studies except in specific cases, such as the work of O Keeffe. Tessler breaks new ground by expanding the number and variety of works that break and reconstitute such traditional iconic imagery and make it their own as a way of exploring the nature and desire of women and the possibilities of art to depict their lives, dreams, and possibilities. --Professor Emerita Linda Ben-Zvi, Tel Aviv University About the Author Dr Nira Tessler is a Lecturer on the History of Art and Design at various Israeli academic institutions, mainly at “Talpiot” Academic College for Education. She specializes in international modern art, Israeli art and design. Her research focuses on visual culture and the “New Woman” art of the first decades of the twentieth century – from sociological, gender and psychological perspectives – within the discourse on the politics of identity.