What will it take to see the image of the black woman as a human being? What is the moral responsibility of an artist? I find it difficult to answers these questions. As a black woman I aware that regardless of my artistic talent and education, the myths and stereotypes are seen first. As an artist, I feel the need to represent black women in a positive light, but is this only for my private portfolio? What does an artist do when they are commissioned to paint an image that could be racist and sexist? The strategies for how an artist positions him/herself narrating a historical event relies heavily on the dominant society’s viewpoint. The important aspect in contemporary black feminist literature is looking at the historical painting as another form of storytelling that contributes to the…
is oil on canvas, mounted on masonite, and it is 40 x 30.7 cm. The Broken Column is at…
In the 1980’s, female artist addressed the dominance of cultural perceptions regarding female agency, pleasure, and spectatorship. In order to make their voice heard in a white male dominant art industry, they created works of art from paintings to films that challenged the social stereotypes and ideologies about female identity. This essay will define these three perceptions and examine the artworks from artist such as Julie Dash, Kobena Mercer , and Jenny Saville. These artists paved a way for the feminist movement through the use of disturbing the normative constructions of femininity, racial identity, and the body.…
People often toss around the notion that “art is subjective.” We have heard the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” one too many times growing up. We all understand that everyone holds different perspectives, but maybe we have become numb to the actual meanings behind these words. We are the ones who succumb to the aesthetics of art without truly understanding the contexts in which it arises from. We seem to think we know all about a culture once we possess or even create a certain “stereotypical” work of art. We get so caught up in the beauty of it all, but we need to question what exactly aesthetic values do in creating a false sense of reality. Writers like Teju Cole understand this urge and give us a wake-up call that we are living…
In an age where younger generations of girls are taught that they are beautiful by just being themselves, there are subtle hints all around us that may express the opposite. Yes, beauty can come in all shapes and sizes but there can always be more to fix about ourselves; to become, or appear, more perfect. This concept of women having to conform to what is considered the feminine ideal is nothing new. The idea that women are valued based on the perception of others, specifically men, as portrayed in Ovid’s Pygmalion and Hesiod’s Works and Days, has been the central idea, or issue, in many contemporary works of art precisely because this idea still seems relevant in modern society.…
Throughout the collection of Joan Snyder’s art in University of New Mexico’s Art Museum, there was a personal style her painting easy to familiarize with in the future, which I like. Our Foremothers message of women’s struggle throughout history, expressed in the intensity and dramatic feel that the colors in the writing and the mid-ground is what appealed to me and made me like the it. My eyes kept an on going curiosity about the something new I would see. It made me feel an emotion over the names and messages read. I also enjoyed that the painting kept my attention at everything that was going on. There was a lot to look at and to think about. The message Joan wrote was a liking in the painting also. After reading, it opened up some new thoughts and feelings to the painting that I had not known.…
Depictions of women in art have changed and morphed depending on their cultures and time periods in which they’ve been photographed and painted. The contexts of the artworks vary in their representation of women and change throughout their history accordingly. Sexist stereotypes of women being passive and docile – archetypal to classical art adapt and shift to incredibly provocative of modern and post-modern ideas of perfection of the female within art; the shift having the eyes downcast to having the eyes confront, challenge and stare down the voyeur. Classical, modern and post-modern all have ideologies of perfection within art. The representation of…
In the article ‘Why have there been no Great Women Artists?’ written by Linda Nochlins, the author makes her argument and discussion on the issue in artwork of women, and feminist art history. One of the most important points that the author raised is that there are plenty of factors bringing obstacles to women in the western countries in the past, which prevent women from getting success in the art world. At the very beginning of the essay, the author mentioned about the words from John Stuart Mill, saying that people tend to accept the things that whatever is as natural’. It makes an introduction to the main idea of the article that most of the people in the society do believe that it is ‘natural’ that there is no great women artists in the society, and this ambience can be one of the possible factors lead to the…
In the article “Gender Role Stereotypes in Fine Art: A Content Analysis of Art History Books” the author Charlotte G. O’Kelly shares a study made about gender differences in art in the past and in the ways there continues to be differences. Throughout different eras in history, men have typically been the dominate…
Frida Kahlo’s self-reflective works are well known for their complex themes and often tradition-breaking attributes, making them key components of the feminist movement, and The Broken Column is no exception. Frida Kahlo's The Broken Column expresses her self-reflection on her own body and past experiences as well as challenging classically held ideas about the male gaze and the role of female artists in the sublime.…
This painting is a portrait that is his featuring his friend and fellow artist Mary Cassatt. His friendship with her, other female artists and the encouragement he gave them was different from what other artists’ views on women were during this time. He is often compared against with Renoir and Manet views of women in their works of art. “..Whose interest in women seems to have been confined to their sexuality and their suitability as models”, while with Manet it was “... Whose behavior towards women was conventionally chivalric.”…
Art is one aspect of the past that has carried on for decades. Art in any form may it be poetry, novels, and playwright, sculpting as well as painting, has been an outlet for generations and continues to be an outlet and a means for expression. This paper will discuss “ The Mona Lisa” one of Da Vinci’s most famous paintings, as well as another great painting, Antonio Veneziano’s “Virgin and Child”(c. 1380). Both paintings focus on the human form and exhibit many variations of styles from lines, shading, color and possible meanings behind the work.…
“Miller illustrates a woman resembling a male, to convince women to consider how they can help their country. The painting also shows women as an empowering and useful force in the war effort. It encourages feminism and allows women to believe that they can be influential in becoming victorious.”…
Berger, thus, focuses on the portrayal of the nude as an objectification and denigration of women in European art. However, Berger continues, what makes his essay relevant is the fact that this objectification of women is not simply limited to European art, but continues in modern society even today. Berger chooses this topic to bring to light the social inequality between men and women.…
First in Chapter 3 of Ways of Seeing, the social presence of men and women are spoken about. John Berger expresses that men and women have different types of social presence. Men are measured by the level of power they offer in different forms, such as economic, physical, and moral. A man's own presence suggests that an individual may or may not be able to do for you as individual yourself because it may be fabricated. Although, a woman’s presence may indicate what can or cannot be done to her due to her daily activity contributing to her own presence.…