Conversation with Susan Bee, New York, 2003

The conversation with Susan Bee circles around her experiences in several feminist art collectives. Bee refers to her role as co-editor of M/E/A/N/I/N/G, a magazine of artists’ writings, theory, and criticism with feminist perspectives. This project followed her earlier involvement with The Heresies Collective. She reflects on the challenges and benefits of working with a smaller editorial team, noting that M/E/A/N/I/N/G was less restricted by collective decision-making, allowing for a more diverse range of content. The conversation shifts to Bee’s involvement with A.I.R. Gallery, the first feminist gallery in New York, founded in 1972 and still active. The gallery, which features a cooperative structure of 20 artists who identify as women or non-binary, continues to support young artists through fellowships. Bee emphasizes that the gallery represents a variety of artistic styles and reflects the diversity of contemporary feminist art.

Bee shows examples from her artistic practice, which involves both painting and artist book productions. She explains that while her work carries feminist undertones, it is not overtly didactic. She references a piece that includes the phrase “my wife stood with a loaded gun,” based on a poem about the intersection of warfare and womanhood. Her work often features juxtaposed elements that confront societal norms and reinterpret women’s roles in visual culture. Bee is inspired by surrealists like Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington who challenged the male-dominated art scene by reclaiming imagery used to objectify women.

The conversation addresses the role of motherhood in the art world. Bee and Mira Schor, who collaborated on M/E/A/N/I/N/G, sent out questionnaires to female artists to examine how motherhood impacted their practice. Responses varied from generation to generation. Miriam Schapiro and Nancy Spero recalled the need to hide pregnancies to maintain their careers, and some younger artists still felt pressure to conceal motherhood in professional settings.
Throughout the conversation, Bee reflects on the challenges and divisions between different feminist factions. These divisions sometimes led to personal and social rifts, as well as the formation of separate spaces, like A.I.R. Gallery. Bee emphasizes the significant impact of feminist art history since the 1970s when there was little documentation of women artists. The feminist movement helped rediscover and validate the work of important artists like Meret Oppenheim and Artemisia Gentileschi.