In January of 1971, the American art historian Linda Nochlin published a landmark essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? It was a provocation and a call to arms that was to send shockwaves through the arts establishment. Nobody seemed to be able to establish themselves as career artists.
So we got together, we complained, and I decided we should have a meeting and really talk seriously about it.” That first meeting at Roser’s home in New York led to the establishment of the Women in the Arts Foundation, which took to the streets to force a change in the status quo. As well as being a priceless witness to an activist movement that altered history, she is also making her own history at London’s VeneKlasen gallery this month, as the first American artist to make their European debut as a centenarian. Meeting Roser over video link in her New York home, everything about her is surprising: she is 101 but could pass for 30 years younger.
She was born in the US to Chinese parents, but insists that she never experienced racial discrimination. She doesn’t buy the idea that female artists, herself included, are constantly reforgotten today, as they were in the past. Her memory is as sharp and bright as the art she continues to make in the studio where she has worked for more than 70 years.
Of that formative moment in 1971 she recalls: “There was a school of thought that we’re middle-class women, and we are afraid to assert ourselves.” At first only a handful of people were involved, but by the third meeting, the artist Elaine de Kooning had offered her studio. We decided we were going to have a joyous demonstration. We were not going to be like the men and be fierce and aggressive.
Of course, we were aggressive, but we weren’t fierce.” The protesters were an A to Z of art history as we know it today. Joan Mitchell appeared off the plane from France. Louise Bourgeois stood in front of MoMA holding a big sheet with NO written on it.
Pat Passlof brandished a sign that declared: “MoMa loves Papa.” “We made a lot of noise. We closed it off,” says Roser. The payoff came in 1973, with an offer from the New York Cultural Center to host a show curated by, and featuring, female artists.
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