Acrobat 

Miriam Schapiro made this unnamed artwork, "Acrobat" as part of her series on performance. The imagery of an acrobat is a powerful one. In the West, acrobats were traditionally nomadic performers from marginalized social groups. In other cultures, acrobatics has a more spiritual aspect. We might think of it as a metaphor for balance or even as a symbol of social mobility. Schapiro was working in the United States during the feminist movement. Her work critiques the institutions of art by questioning what we mean by 'high' and 'low' art. She combined techniques associated with decorative craft like quilting and collage with formal abstraction, which was more socially accepted at the time, thus challenging established notions of value and taste. To fully understand Schapiro's work, we need to look at the history of women artists and how they have been excluded from the traditional art canon. We can use historical methods to examine the social conditions that shape artistic production. We then see how the artist can challenge the existing social norms.