See also
a sample from a Dutch book
of art
illustrating words and expressions for
menstruation from around the world.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or menopause and are
interested in showing it on thesepages (it's
free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine
(Italian edition) featured several of the
above artists in an article
about this museum and menstruation in 2003.
The newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna
magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine
Dishy (Turkey) showed some of the artists in
2005 in articles about this museum.
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The Art of Menstruation at the Museum of
Menstruation and Women's Health
Red Flag
Judy Chicago, 1971
Photolithograph (51/94), 20"x 24,"
printed from aluminum plates by Sam
Francis in his personal workshop,
1971. ©1971 Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago donated this print
(number 51 of 94) to the Museum of
Menstruation in 1998.
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Red Flag
may be the first work of art - and
it was, and is, controversial - to
show this commonplace event in many
women's lives: removing a tampon.
The artist has commented that many
people did not know what the red
object was; some thought it was a
bloody penis, showing how unwilling
many women (and men!) are to look at
personal, but everyday functions.
Ms. Chicago, the foremost feminist
artist in the world,
donated the print to MUM. Some of
her other artwork are The Dinner Party,
Birth Project, Holocaust Project and Menstruation
Bathroom. The Canadian
television film Under Wraps
shows the 1995 re-installation of
the latter in the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (it
also shows MUM); the work was first
created in Womanhouse in the 1970s.
The artist has published volumes
of autobiography as well as other
material. The Canadian television
production company Starry Night,
which created Under Wraps, is making
a film of Ms. Chicago's work.
Her nonprofit organization, Through the Flower,
invites you to contact them at 101
N. 2nd Street, Belen, New Mexico,
87002, U.S.A., telephone (505)
864-4088. And it now has a Web site:
Read more
about how Ms. Chicago gave the print
to this museum.
By the way, considering Red Flag,
the Washington Post wrote on 22
April 1998 about a new exhibit in
the National Museum of American
History showing awful working
conditions in some shops of
the garment industry in the U.S.A.
At the start of the displays, some
text explains why the museum dared
create such a show (taken here from
the Post):
[The
mission of a history museum is
to] interpret difficult,
unpleasant, or controversial episodes, not
out of any desire to embarrass,
be unpatriotic, or cause pain,
but out of a responsibility
to convey a fuller, more
inclusive history.
In addition, I think that a museum
has the responsibility to display noncontroversial
aspects of its chosen subject - but
no one contests that, except maybe
for menstruation!
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NEXT artist:
Selin Cileli
(or start from the first artist,
alphabetically, Mayra Alpízar)
See all the
artists in the links in the
left-hand column.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or
menopause and are interested in
showing it on these pages (it's
free!), contact MUM
© 2002 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or distribute
work on this Web site in any manner
or medium without written permission
of the author. Please report
suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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