Sheila Leirner discusses feminine and feminist art in Europe, the United States and Brazil. In her opinion, movements of this kind proliferated in 1980s art, which also served as a vehicle for reporting on the situation of the woman in the contemporary society. These ideas first reached Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, through organized groups, exhibitions and books such as Feminist Essays on Women’s Art, by the U.S. critic Lucy R. Lippard. In fact, Lippard was the curator of the first exhibition of work by women artists, which set off a debate on the possible specific characteristics of “women’s art.” Leirner raises the problem of this concept, the links between female and feminist, and the possibility that works of this kind incorporate values common to all women. In the Brazilian art world, Leirner highlights a few cases whose work might fit the definition of feminist art, such as Yolanda Mohalyi, Maria Bonomi, Renina Katz, Lygia Clark and Iole de Freitas.

This text is one of a collection of critical essays gathered in Arte como medida: críticas selecionadas (São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 1982), by the art curator and critic Sheila Leirner (b. 1948). This creative focus on the woman or feminist art is a common theme of several articles included in this book, originally published by Leirner in the São Paulo press between 1975 and 1982. This would be one of the first texts (1977) in which the critic tries to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, under debate in contemporary art. Here she comments on what she understands as significant manifestations inherent in feminism, listing recurrent themes: identity, sexuality and socioeconomic criticism of the conditions of life and work. She believes that Body Art would be a recurrent form of artistic expression linked to feminist art; however, there would be no single explanation of that then-new trend in Brazilian art.

As a journalist and art critic, the French Brazilian Sheila Leirner (b. 1948) was a member of the Conselho de Arte e Cultura da Bienal in 1982−83, and came to be the chief curator of two biennials in that period: the 18th (1985) and the 19th (1987). After studying the sociology of art in France, Leirner became an art critic for the daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo in 1975. She published a collection of her essays under the title Arte e seu tempo (São Paulo: Editôra Perspectiva, 1991), a book in which she began to set a priority on what she called “new art.” That was also the year Leirner returned to Paris, where she worked and specialized as an arts administrator. She represented the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Latin America (1993−99), and became a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) (French division). Leirner has contributed to countless journals and supplements in both countries, including Beaux-Arts Magazine, Europe Magazine Littéraire, Revista da USP, and Cadernos de Literatura Brasileira. She was also on the scholarship committee for UNESCO-Aschberg.

There is a text in which Leirner analyzes the artwork produced in the 1970s and 1980s in Brazil, in the midst of pluralism in international art, entitled “Brasil: uma nova arte” [doc. no. 1110940], in addition to two essays on Mary Dritschel, the U.S. artist who lived in São Paulo for almost a decade, about her work and the condition of women: “Mary Dritschel I” [doc. no. 1111361] and “Mary Dritschel II” [doc. no. 1111362].