Single-sided flyer / poster self-published by Hannah Wilke. This copy from an unknown number of unnumbered and unsigned copies. There were also 25 signed and numbered copies.

"Marxism and Art : Beware of Fascist Feminism" poster was produced in response to a request from Ruth Iskin, Lucy Lippard, and Arlene Raven on behalf of the Center for Feminist Art Historical Studies for her to participate in the "What is Feminist Art?" show to be held at the Women's Building in Los Angeles.

"Wilke had a difficult relationship with the feminist movement in the 1970s as a result of her uncompromisingly glamorous self-presentation and the confrontational use of her nude body in her work, which by many was seen dismissively within the narrow prism of narcissism. 'Marxism and Art' is a response to such critics as the well-known feminist Lucy Lippard who, in 1976, accused her of flaunting her body and confusing her role as a beautiful woman with that of an artist resulting in 'politically ambiguous manifestations' (quoted in Hannah Wilke: Exchange Values, p. 160).

In the poster Wilke makes the point that prejudices against traditional ideals of femininity or feminine beauty may come from women as much as from men; that a feminism that prescribes how a woman should look or behave is as harmful as the objectifying values that feminism seeks to redress. In 1980 she explained: 'While feminism in a larger sense is intrinsically more important than art, the individual remains superior to any system or dogma ... In the narrow politics of feminism, art is only a weapon, which may endanger women's art that is formally and humanly relevant but does not adhere to a specific political or commercial concept ... Beware of Fascist Feminism. There is an ethics as well as a warning in esthetic ambiguity.' (Quoted in Avis Berman, "A Decade of Progress, But Could a Female Chardin Make a Living Today," Art News, vol. 79, no. 8, October 1980, p. 77)"—Tate Gallery website text