Summary Of The 1997 Graphic Not Stupid Enough

In choosing works that might represent progress for women artists, and those that could be termed regressive, I found it was easier to find progressive art than work that diminished the role of the female artist. So I tried to look at the work of artists from chapters 13 through 15 from the point of view of a critic or an audience member. If I wanted to find fault, where would I look? If I wanted to diminish the work and the role of the artist, how would I do it?
In this essay, I’ll use the 1997 graphic Not Stupid Enough from Barbara Kruger, as the progressive example, and the 1979 sculpture “Dinner Party,” from Judy Chicago, as the not so progressive example. I will compare and contrast each work from the point of view of the progression of women artists from the late 1970’s until today; the quality of the art that signals the progression; and how each work reflects – or doesn’t reflect -- the progress of women’s art as a whole.
The graphic from Kruger features a pop art photo of Marilyn Monroe, with the stark red caption “Not
Around the border, we see “Not ironic enough,” “Not nothing enough.” “Not skinny enough.” “Not good enough.” We might still be puzzling over not stupid enough, when we see these. Not ironic enough? For who – the snobby male movie critic? Not nothing enough -- an indication of her low-self-esteem, which has been written about extensively? Not skinny enough – the point of view of self-hating women?
Overall, this work seems to represent the condemnation of women from a chauvinistic order, and a toxic self- hatred that has taken over women themselves. “I’m not enough. Why am I never enough?” This graphic, which was created in 1997, seems to signal a progression in women’s art, which fuses together feminism with artistry. This is not the 1960’s or 1970’s, where it was enough just to throw out a feminist manifesto and display it as art – which is partly this viewer’s opinion about Judy Chicago’s “Dinner