Assessing the legacy of Nancy Spero

The work of American artist Nancy Spero is as much about the oppressions of a male-centric, hierarchical society as it is about the corruption caused by war, violence and power. An artist as well as devout feminist and political activist, Spero's work is a reflection of, and crucial contribution to, her ongoing statements against inequality and injustice.

Spero moved to New York in the mid-1960s, and it was against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement that her art drew inspiration. She was a founding member of the first women's cooperative gallery, A.I.R. (Artists in Residence), and sought to bypass the male dominated art scene of the time.

Spero never used oil on canvas or made sculpture - what she considered 'male' mediums - but instead used collage, prints, gouache, woodblock lettering, water colour and installation, and overlapped texts and images from a wide range of sources from past and present cultures to create a richly layered visual language. Her works are not simply read from left to right in a linear, logical manner, but can be read horizontally, vertically and diagonally, creating an intentional non-hierarchical field of vision.

Likewise, Spero's choice of imagery and text is always provocative: tortured faces, images of goddess-protagonists drawn from Greek, Egyptian, Indian and pagan mythologies, and references to contemporary violence. Feelings of alienation, disempowerment and pain are evident.

Because of this richly layered visual language her works can be feminist, pacifist and activist all at once, but always reflect on the human experience in face of injustice. The struggles of women in society therefore translate into the struggles of contemporary society. And so it was not only female but human liberties which Spero fought for throughout her life.

It is this legacy of both feminist and humanitarian which London's Serpentine Gallery is now assessing thoroughly in both its retrospective exhibition and conference dedicated to Spero, just two years after her death in 2009.

Nancy Spero: A Conference, held at London's V&A Museum (15 April), is a day of talks and discussion dedicated to Spero's work and its relationship to feminism, literature, philosophy and theatre, with particular reference to its relationship to French playwright and poet Antonin Artaud. Featuring renowned artists, academics and curators such as Margaret Harrison, pioneer of feminist art, and Sophie O'Brien, curator at the Serpentine, the conference will be a crucial contribution to our understanding of Spero's legacy.

"This is not just an aesthetic, but a politics and an ethics. What seems specific to Nancy's work is the symbolic weight that she gives not just to 'content' but to the types of space and time that the work encodes. The past weighs heavily upon, and activates, the present", says Jon Bird, one of the conference's presenters, curator of the first Spero retrospective at the ICA in 1987, and contributor to the monograph Nancy Spero.

The conference is held in conjunction with the Serpentine's major posthumous retrospective, Nancy Spero (until 2 May).

Jennifer Bayne.