THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Irene Peslikis
October 7, 1943 – November 28, 2002
“I’ll tell you just what my experience was in a regular consciousness-raising way. Shulie Firestone was one of the co-founders of it (Redstockings). When I heard about it, I was there as soon as the next meeting came up, and I couldn’t believe what I saw, and I heard. I was so thrilled and excited. I mean, all these women together talking about their experience and that we could do something about it and change the world.”
Artist, activist, and educator. Organized the first show of Second Wave women artists. A founder of the New York Feminist Art Institute. A founder of the journal Women & Art. A founder of the NoHo Gallery in Manhattan, one of the first cooperative feminist art galleries. An early member of Redstockings and New York Radical Women.
Photo 1. New York Feminist Art Institute Founders, 1978: Left to Right, Top Row: Miriam Schapiro, Carol Stonghilos. Bottom Row: Nancy Azara, Irene Peslikis, Lucille Lessane (Selena Whitefeather not present). Photo 2. Irene Peslikis, photographed in the 1980s. The Barbican.
Irene Peslikis remarks at the Veteran Feminists of America event, 30th Anniversary of the Women’s Liberation Movement, December 1997.
Read the Transcript
More About Irene:
- Obituary
- Behind Alice Neel’s Marxist Girl, Irene Peslikis is often remembered simply as the subject of Alice Neel’s portrait “Marxist Girl,” but as Chris Hayes writes she was also an inspiring artist and activist who played a pivotal role in feminist organizing in New York. Chris Hayes, August 11, 2023
- Archives
- Veteran Feminists of America Salute to Feminists in the Arts, National Art Club, New York City November 6, 2003
- N.Y. Feminist Art Institute
- Wikipedia page
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, pages 357 – 358
