Second Generation Feminism (Visual Arts Trajectory) 

Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activities and movements starting the 1960’s and continuing on into the early 1980’s. 

This time different from first-wave feminism whose main goal was to overturn and change legal obstacles on the way to equality.   The second-wave more focused on unofficial inequalities like social stereotypes.  However, they still strove to address legal hold-backs.

“The second wave feminism came in as a response to the late 1940s post-war boom, an era not only characterised by an unprecedented economic growth, baby boom, suburbia expansion and the triumph of capitalism, being set as the standard socio-economic model that favours middle-class development, but also an era marked by a consistent effort to re-establish pre-war patriarchal social trends. This fact was clearly illustrated by the media of time, television shows such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver idealised domesticity, placing women in a closed sphere where they only had to fulfill the roles of housewives and mothers.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism#Overview) 

In his book, Art of the postmodern era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s, author Irving Sandler identifies “Feminists believed that their art should be about their lives as women.  Art was to begin with the individual, detailing her experiences, emotions, desires, and dream – who she was and show she got be that way-but if deeply felt, it would express a sense of the collective experience and consciousness of all women.” (Sandler 114)

One theme of this wave of feminism was the view of the self and of the body.  In 1972, artist Eleanor Antin presented her work “Carving: A Traditional Sculpture”.  It is a series of 148 black and white photos documenting  37 days (four photos per day) of the artist's weight loss.

Eleanor Antin. Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1972.

Another theme in this movement is role-reversal.  An example of this can be seen in Sylvia Sleigh's art-historical switcheroo Philip Golub Reclining (1971).  The painter depicts herself like Velazquez in the background recording a languorous nude, here a long-haired youth who regards himself in the mirror.

Sylvia Sleigh. Philip Golub Reclining, 1971.

Sources: 

Sandler, Irving. Art of the postmodern era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s. Westview Press: 1996.

(http://books.google.com/books?id=nZc14C5JXSIC)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_/ai_101010678

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/eleanorantin/php?i=747

http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2007/11/art-space-talk-sylvia-sleigh/html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism