To see the Radical Women show at the Hammer Museum is to be reminded of how powerfully angry and forceful women artists were from 1960-1985. I say women artists and not Latina artists which is what this show is focussed on, because it made me recall WACK, the Moca show that treated roughly the same period--and same energy--of the women artists in California. 

Nevertheless, Latinas, already in a culture which often subjugates women even more than our own rose up with a collectivity that belied their different countries of origin, their different media, their different life circumstances.

The curators have done a mistress-ful job of collecting these works and more than one visit is required to absorb the copious texts that accompany each install.  I bought the catalog immediately, it is a worthy investment. 

The imagery is consistent: we are bound, we are open in our many orifices, we are marginalized, we are silent, we are too outspoken, we are mothers, we are wives, we neglect ourselves, we examine ourselves, we want love but not to be restricted artificially by how we find it.

I admired the energy and the anger, but one of our group was older and she was frightened and somewhat offended by the persistent in-our-face imagery.  She reminded me of my mother.  Young women should see this show.  Until recently they were not as "woke" as we were. Now however, I am sensing another cultural shift to the angry days.  That's all too the good. Just as PST LA/LA is raising our consciousness about Latin American artists, so a number of the exhibitions are raising our consciousness about women.  I am happy to be typing that phrase again.

This exhibition is a must-see.