The artistic contributions from three portrait artists of the 21st century are insightful, emotional, and at times even painful. Marina Abramovic, Frida Kahlo, and Cui Xiuwen share many similarities in their work and yet very unique, standing on their own conceptual approach and techniques. These artists offer various expressions of self and interpretations of their own personal world of struggles, pain, and passion.

Marina as a pioneer in performance art, and withstands pain, exhaustion, and even jeopardizes her safety for the sake of art! She creates to become the art and is literally present in her work. Each piece is alive and her modern performances physically test her body as in the installation of "The Artist is Present" at the Moma in March 2010. She will perform eight hours a day for three months straight. She generously offers herself in her work as a means to express her ideas and document her own reality. In her sad piece, Happy Christmas,

Marina documents her pain of seperation from her husband in a way that all women can relate. Larger than life black and white, which adds a timelessness documenting an experience any woman at any time may have gone through. Her work tells of the dichotomy of women, life's reality of pain and joy.

Frida Kahlo was most influenced by her own life and struggles. As to why she painted self portraits, she said, "I paint myself because I am alone, I know myself best". Most of her paintings told the story of her own reality. She shares her self-image with us in a realistic way. She does not pretend to be beautiful; blood, sickness, and her unattractive, frowning face. This is realism, and her great use of imagery symbolizes her country through her vivid colors and mexican images like monkeys, flowers, and birds. Ridden with pain, illness, and a tragic accident that left her bedridden for a year, she said of her work, "I never paint dreams, I paint my own reality". Her pieces 'Without Hope', A Few Small Nips', and 'Henry Ford Hospital' depict bloody, painful scenes that exemplify her life. Near death, she said, "I hope to never come back". Much like Marina, Frida expressed herself through her work as an artist documenting on a mission. Her art seemed to be theraputic for her as she dealt with her pain, we can feel her pain deeply. I do not think she dwells on her problems as much as her art is like an autobiography.

Cui Xiuwen, from China, began as a painter but has now changed to video installations as a means to express her views and represent the struggles of women. Cui's 'One Day in 2004' series depicts the struggles of a girl growing up in Beijing. Her work is surreal with a fantasy like quality, yet realistic in the way she portrays the same girl (possibly herself or someone she knows) in various struggles and situations. Her 'Angel' series deals with social and personal issues of a lonely pregnant girl. The concept of maternity in China, much like Marina and Frida's work deals with inner struggles of women in various moments of their lives. Interestingly, Cui decided to stop painting and began her controversial video installations depicting the personal and social struggles of various women. Her video documents women's gender struggles, in a way that we can all relate. Cui feels very strongly about the issues she exemplifies in her pieces, and as we view her pieces we too can feel passionate about these ideas.

In conclusion, all three artists are in some recognizable way, portrait artists who mostly thread themselves through their work as well as real issues for all women. Marina and Frida document their own lives and Cui's subject seems to be that of the social concerns of the woman all three in a very understandable way. Although they are expressing themselves differently through various media, they share the common ground of pain and struggles. This unites women of all cultures creating a sense of comradery, empathy, understanding, and determination for woman. Men may view and attempt to learn much.

Whitney Biennial

Our trip to the Whitney Biennial in NYC proved an interesting one at that. The room that really grabbed my attention was the combined video installation of Marianne Vitale and Storm Tharp's beautiful large scale watercolor paintings. Both artists work well together in a strange way. First, both their work styles and statements are strange. Vitale is on a large tv screen screaming at you telling you to do strange things like spit up in the air. Basically, her attempt to bring to light why people would obey any command that is wrong from anyone whether an authority figure or not. Also, she really tries to get your attention by yelling and calling you names so it is very curious. I found myself just listening to her madness for quite some time. Storm's paintings are sad and yet serene, telling some story that leaves you with questions and wondering. Her portraits are ugly in her depictions of her faces, where warped seems the norm. In a sense, it appeared that her faces went through some type of warped process in a computer program. Her sense to combine pen and ink with graceful watercolors really adds drama and mystery to her pieces.
For all you young folks, just to point out that Aurel Schmidt was born in 1982 and already in the Whitney Museum with her amazing rendering of Master of the Universe Flexmaster 3000. So this is really an encouragement and inspiration that no matter what our age, we can do it!