Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective Exhibition on Femininity in Faceless Fragments at the Hammer Museum

Christina Ramberg (1946–1995) was a key figure in Chicago's contemporary art scene. During the early 1970s, she belonged to a group known as the Chicago Imagists. Their work was primarily figurative, characterized by risqué imagery with references to pop culture and sexuality. "We are interested in the effects gained by withholding information in a work," she explained to the Chicago Daily News around 1969.

Throughout her life, Ramberg infused her experiences and observations as a woman into her works. Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective debuted at the Art Institute of Chicago last summer and was displayed at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles until January 5, 2025. The exhibition presented approximately 100 of her works from both public and private collections.

By examining the feminine form and societal views of femininity, Ramberg's art exudes a certain self-awareness and alludes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality. As artist Riva Lehrer writes in the exhibition catalog, “The subject is both inside and outside herself, in a state of gendered double-consciousness.” Her works bring particular physicalities to the viewer's attention to explore how dress and accessories contribute to how the world sees a woman—which may in turn affect how she sees herself.

With the emergence of second-wave feminism in the 1960s, Ramberg’s constrained subjects reveal how women often walk a thin line between objectification and empowerment. Reflecting on her childhood memories, Ramberg would watch her mother dress up. "I can remember sitting in my mother’s room watching her getting dressed for public appearances… I thought it was fascinating… In some ways, I thought it was awful," she said in a 1990 interview with Kerstin Nelje.

Ramberg was known for focusing on the female torso in many of her paintings. This deliberate choice speaks to how women are often judged by specific body parts rather than viewed as a whole. In the triptych Belle Rève, Ramberg uses a dark palette to feature a lady's curled hair, corseted waist and chunky heels. It is dramatic and perhaps provocative, depending on who is watching.

As with most artists, there comes a time when their original style evolves and they move on to work with new media. Ramberg later experimented with parts and wholes in quilting. Octagons is one of her many compositions of colourful fabrics and geometric patterns. In a 1989 Chicago Tribune interview, she likened her quilts to music: "They're the equivalent of jazz, they ignore the rules, they break the rules, and the result is some of the most exuberant things you've ever seen."

Christina Ramberg's works may not be the most charming, but her retrospective shows that was never her intention. On the contrary, the fragmented bodies appear unsettling and the quilts follow atypical patterns. Her reluctance to embrace traditional beauty standards invites others to question the purpose of the everyday performances they, too, engage in.

However, her works do not offer exact conclusions about womanhood, which adds several layers of complexity to her discourse on feminine identity and the consequences of social perception. Instead, Ramberg leaves viewers with the room to interpret her art as they please, deciding for themselves how to balance stylistic individuality on the verge of vanity and conformity.