Deborah Kass

Walking the line between respectful homage and brazen appropriation, Deborah Kass mimics and reworks the signature styles of some of the 20th century's most iconic male artists—including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Ed Ruscha—in her bold, meticulous paintings. “They're my daddies," she has said, in witty acknowledgment of her indebtedness to her male antecedents. Kass's alterations of their work in her own paintings are both bitingly funny formal interventions and keenly critical commentary on the historically dominant position of male artists. Feminism is central to her approach. As she explains: “It is about my desire to be part of what they're a part of. […] I think the desire was ambition and greatness. For women of my age, it was still not very cool to be overtly ambitious."