The trip to the Orange County Museum of Art was both fascinating and insightful of the current exhibitions from modern artists. The OCMA was currently exhibiting artwork from Marilyn Minter (Pretty/Dirty), We were here: Absense of the figure (of various artists), and The Pacific Project (Yuki Kihara). The museum was of small size but spacious enough to encompass the 3 exhibits, of which Marilyn Minter’s Pretty/Dirty was the largest. I will be explaining Marylin Minter’s background and artwork. Pretty Dirty is a collection of her photographs, paintings, and videos from 1969-2011. Marilyn Minter started out her passion of art from drawing princesses and comic book heroines. Influenced by pop culture, she became interested in glamour. While in college she took photographs of her mother, a drug addict, what she called “a Southern Belle with an inheritance”. Some photos on exhibit, like Mom Dying Eyebrows (1969) and Mom in Negligee (1969), portray her mother in a dark and grotesque way, showing her aging, drug affected body, and not trying to put her in a good light. These types of photos would soon path the way for the artist’s later themes of degraded beauty she would emplace in her artwork. Appetites is a …show more content…
Both enamel on canvas, these realistic painting show women through the distorted reflection in a funhouse mirror. Minter is trying to show that women are show to follow an ideal form of beauty, but only to see themselves as flaws. “These works, like the others from this period, fused a feminist critique of the construction of gender and femininity with other postmodernist hallmarks of the 1980s, including the appropriation of mass-media imagery translated in a cool, detached, style of painting,” says Elissa Auther, co-curator of the exhibition. Minter has changed the way women is presents verse how men only use them for sexual
Gallery 19 of the Museum of Modern Art features Pop Art trailblazers of the early 1960s, ranging from Roy Lichtenstein’s “Girl with Ball” to Andy Warhol’s “Gold Marilyn Monroe.” Alongside these emblematic works of art, there hangs a more simplistic piece: a six foot square canvas with three yellow letters, entitled “OOF.” The work of art, created by Ed Ruscha in 1962, is a painting that leaves little room for subjective interpretation as does the majority of his work. Ruscha represented the culture in the 1960s through his contributions to the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art, efforts to redefine what it meant for a painting to be fine art, and interpretation of the Space Race.
Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of
The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
“When a motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race." (Margaret Sanger, 1) Margaret Sanger, known as the founder of birth control, declared this powerful statement. It is reality that the rights that are customary for women in the twentieth century have been the product of the arduous physical and mental work of many courageous women. These individuals fought for the right for women to be respected in both mind and body by bestowing on them the rights to protect their femininity and to gain the equivalent respect given to men. A remarkable woman named Margaret Sanger is the individual who incredibly contributed to the feministic revolution that took place in the 1920’s. Her legacy of making the right to use birth control legal for woman is a precedent in history for the foundation of the equal rights battle that is still being fought today. By giving control back to the women in their sexuality, Margaret Sanger also restored confidence in those women who felt that their lives revolved around pregnancy. She has become an influential icon to women all around the world who enjoy the security of birth control that gives them the freedom in their sexuality on a daily bases.
No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Sherman’s photography is part of the culture and investigation of sexual and racial identity within the visual arts since the 1970’s. It has been said that, “The bulk of her work…has been constructed as a theater of femininity as it is formed and informed by mass culture…(her) pictures insist on the aporia of feminine identity tout court, represented in her pictures as a potentially limitless range of masquerades, roles, projections” (Sobieszek 229).
This investigation will examine a few key works by the anonymous female artist group know in popular culture as the Guerrilla Girls. In this essay it will reveal several prominent themes within the groups works that uncover the racial and gender inequalities in politics, art and pop culture with the use of humor. These collaborating artists work and operate with a variety of mediums, their works display a strong message concerned with activism connected by humor allowing the Guerrilla Girls to communicate and resonate a more powerful message to the viewer. The ways in which this collaborating group has employed many questions and facts against the hierarchy and historical ideologies which have exploited women and their roles in art. This investigation will allow the reader to identify three areas in which the Guerrilla Girls apply a certain forms of humor to transform society’s view on the prominent issue of gender in the art world. These specific ploys that are performed by the Guerrilla Girls are in the way they dress, the masks they wear, pseudonymous names of dead women artists and the witty factual evidence in their works. These are all examples to evoke audiences in challenging not only the art society which dictates the value and worth of women in art but also to confront yourself and your own beliefs in a way that makes audiences rethink these growing issues.
Fred Lawrence Guiles elaborately illustrates Marilyn’s feelings of worthlessness, dependence on others as well as thirst for love throughout the biography. It’s possible that this was some sort of innate characteristic that Marilyn was born into. After all, her grandmother and mother seemed to be of a similar nature. Della Monroe, the grandmother of Marilyn, was hit hard by the Great Depression and when she found herself in penury, she began to live off of small remittances from family in California. Here begins the Monroe history of relying on others for support as well as comfort. Marilyn’s mother Gladys was to become just as unstable as her parents. After Gladys’ husband Martin Edward Mortensen left her while still pregnant, Della Monroe suggested that Gladys should have the neighbors across the street, known as the Bolenders, to board Norma when she was to be born. Again, an instance of the Monroe famil...
Alice Neel’s painting Suzanne Moss was created in 1962 using oil paint on canvas. As the title suggests, the painting depicts a woman’s portrait. Now resigning in the Chazen Museum in Madison, WI, this portrait of a woman lunging is notable for the emotional intensity it provokes as well as her expressionistic use of brush strokes and color. The scene is set by a woman, presumably Suzanne Moss, dressed in dull back and blues lounging across a seat, staring off to the side, avoiding eye contact with the viewer. The unique style and technique of portraiture captures the woman’s piercing gaze and alludes to the interior emotions of the subject. In Suzanne Moss, Alice Neel uses desultory brush strokes combined with contrast of warm and cool shadows
Terror and mockery come together in the portraits of Cindy Sherman on display at the Crocker Art Museum. Walking into the large, dimly lit ballroom, one may begin to feel a slight sense of trepidation as the viewer looks around to find nine sets of beady eyes watching one’s every move. Sherman produced her History Portraits during the late eighties and early nineties, nine of which are displayed at the museum. In her portraits she uses lush fabrics, lavish jewelry, and false body parts to decorate herself in these self-portraits. Her portraits have been know to cause discomfort in the viewers who find the general stereotypes, depicted in her portraits, amusing, yet confusing and terrorizing.
"Whilst some feminists have argued to be included in 'male stream' ideologies, many have also long argued that women are in important respects both different from and superior to men, and that the problem they face is not discrimination or capitalism but male power." (Bryson, 2003, p. 3). The feminist art movement is unclear in its description because some describe this movement as art that was simply created by women and others describe it as art with anti-male statements in mind. For the focal point of this paper, the goal will be to analyze several female artists and their works of art who influenced, and who are said to have made powerful influence both in the feminist art movement from a political and societal perspective, then and today. With that being said, we will start with the female artist Judy Chicago and a quote from her that calcifies her position as an artist. "I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized
...eth Siddall. The paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists imply that women fell into two categories: the chaste, maternal figure or the harlot. The subjects in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, are often defined by their relation to men, just as women in Victorian society were defined by their fathers, brothers, and sons. Though the feminist movement gained popularity during the Victorian era, women were still expected to be “. . . private and almost anonymous.” Victorian society was extremely preoccupied with controlling its members, as seen by the elaborate protocol governing the behaviour of women, yet at the same time it was also mesmerized by those who deviated from social expectations, like the “fallen women.” In Victorian England, art became a method for artists to express and grapple with a variety of societal problems, such as prostitution and the status of women.
One of the most influential and inspiring feminist artists to produce work, Judy Chicago was able to (how she changed the world) through her work including ‘the dinner party’ (1979).an instillation completed after 5 years of development. Triangular in configuration, equilateral in structure, reflecting the goal of feminism, an equalized world. Completed using ceramics, needle and fiber techniques as well as china painting. The table holding 39 place settings each commemorating a mythical or important woman or historical figure. Beneath the table was 2304 handmade porcelain tiles, 999 of which were inscribed of other important woman’s names. In her artwork the dinner party Judy Chicago gave recognition to woman both achievers and oppressed. In this way she gave a voice to the duality of woman’s issues, not only was she advocating for recognition of woman’s achievements but she was also bringing to the forefront the concept of inequality. Judy Chicago‘’ had been trying to establish a respect for woman and woman’s art; to forge a new kind of art expressing woman’s experience’- challenge and redefine conventions of gender’’ The fact that the names of woman were placed on a high end table setting challenged gender equality in itself as tables like this had previously been only acc...
The gestural and heavy working of the paint and the contrasting colors make the painting appear active yet are arduous to follow. The defining element of Woman and Bicycle is the presence of the black lines that do most of the work in terms of identifying the figure. Through the wild nature of the brushwork, color, and composition of the painting, it can be implied that the artist is making an implication towards the wild nature of even the most proper of women.
It does, however, demonstrate a similar back-breaking work as Millet’s painting. These women are dressed in brighter, more forward clothing, particularly the woman in red who is the central figure. Because of their position being inside, these ladies are paler and are focusing on the processing of the grain that was harvested, perhaps even by the same women in Millet’s painting. It shows a slightly higher tier of the working class of women in this time; rather than slaving away outside, they break their backs inside with monotonous and tedious work. One thing to note in this painting is that there is a young boy to the right examining a box. With a little digging, it can be found that this box is actually a modified piece of technology: a sifter with even finer mesh than that of the ladies. Courbet is throwing in our faces that even the little boy and the box are at a higher position in society than them. On the left, a woman seems to almost be asleep. In detail, you can see the shadows framing her face and the hollowness of her eye sockets. She is clearly sleep-deprived from this unvaried work. More care is taken by these women, whether forced or not, to look their best no matter what work is being done. They must be more presentable and are likely working in the same household as the owner lives and therefore must dress to respect them. Courbet paints these women in a way that is much more objectified