According to art historian Maria Elena Buszek, an assistant professor of art history at the Kansas City Art Institute, a new generation of feminists is remaking the pin-up. By Laura Spencer
Kansas City, MO – Maria Elena Buszek?s new book is called Pin-up Grrrls Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture (scheduled for publication in Spring 2006) and in it she argues that for more than a century, women have used the genre as a form of empowerment. KCUR?s Laura Spencer talked to Buszek who says she came to the University of Kansas in Lawrence on a graduate fellowship to study 19th century Spanish painting, but changed her emphasis after encountering the Spencer Museum of Art?s collection from the Esquire archives, including the iconic 1940s Varga girls.
Buszek talks about her book and research Wednesday, February 8 at 7 pm at the Women?s Center on the campus of UMKC.
For more on the 2001 exhibit co-curated by Buszwk called Alberto Vargas: the Esquire Pinups at the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas.