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Women portrayed in art
The effect of gender on art during the 19th century
Role of women in western art evolving
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To objectify the female body in artwork means to strip the subject of some aspects of humanity, reducing her down to fundamentals in order to construct an image based on the desire of the artist and not the personality of the sitter. The Western tradition of art heavily relied on objectification: idealizing, primitivizing, or eroticizing the body to convey messages and explore the psyche of the artist. The advent of Performance art as it is known today reinvented what it means to objectify the body, and through this it fundamentally changed set artistic doctrines. The female body moved outside of the canvas and became real flesh. Performance artwork, particularly that of Marina Abramovic, fractured preconceived ideas of art and notions of the female body through its visceral exploration of the body in art, its physical limitations, and how it is objectified through the performance. Performance Art is defined as "a nontraditional art form often with political or topical themes that typically features a live presentation to an audience or …show more content…
In this piece she used the Russian knife game to explore the physical limitations of the body: each time she cut herself she would switch knives until she harmed herself twenty times with twenty different knives. This would be recorded, and then she would play back the recording while recreating what she just did, merging past and present. This was also the first time a performance artist considered his or her state of consciousness as a performer and the impact that could
People usually expect to see paintings and sculptures in Art Galleries. Imagine the surprise one finds when they are presented with a man stitching his face into a bizarre caricature, or connected to a machine which controls the artist’s body. These shocking pieces of performance art come under the broad umbrella that is Postmodernism. Emphasis on meaning and shock value has replaced traditional skills and aesthetic values evident in the earlier Modernist movements.
The male artists portrayed women as a projection of their ideal woman. The artist’s often overlooked the women’s identity’s and personalities in favour of creating aesthetically pleasing art for themselves and other superior males to view and enjoy. This was especially harmful because the more popular the art grew to be, the more often women were categorised as objects rather than people. The art contributed to gender construction by creating these gender roles and reinforcing that in all situations, men were superior to
Women in media have been developed over many years to appear and pose a certain way, to achieve a certain appearance. Historical oil paintings, dated back to 1500s, have one customarily viewer, this being males. ‘Male gaze’ is described to be the ‘sexual objectification of women in fine art, as well as other various media outlets’, that the media/paintings, has a male spectator observing the female being painted or photographed. Females in historical oil paintings have been commissioned and painted by men, making them the typically viewer of media/paintings. Women learned to be aware of this ‘gaze’ as they have been under strict conditions by their fathers, husbands by being subjugated and kept illiterate, this being through the Renaissance
Prior to the 20th century, female artists were the minority members of the art world (Montfort). They lacked formal training and therefore were not taken seriously. If they did paint, it was generally assumed they had a relative who was a relatively well known male painter. Women usually worked with still lifes and miniatures which were the “lowest” in the hierarchy of genres, bible scenes, history, and mythological paintings being at the top (Montfort). To be able to paint the more respected genres, one had to have experience studying anatomy and drawing the male nude, both activities considered t...
When a young toddler begins to speak, naming things they see around them, it is because they saw their parents do it. As they grow into a teenagers, they give names to things based on what they have heard from their friends and social media. This pattern carries into adulthood. The way we identify things reflects the progression of understanding art featuring woman, as explored in John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. He presents the idea in chapter three that woman were portrayed in art since the beginning and how it transcends to modern times. His main points surround the portrayal of woman throughout the ages and what effects it has had on our view of women not only paintings, but as humans in society. The ideas of women are contradictory because it is facilitated by men and the way they see women. Berger talks about this concept, and much more in chapter three of Ways of Seeing.
Keeping in harmony with colors was an important task to explain women's behavior as wells as making artwork acceptable to every body. Crossing the social boundaries and limitations would only bring void and controversy in the created artwork, which can happen by wrong use of color or wrong presentation of women's image. But for the artists like Pablo Picasso explaining the things without any boundaries and social limitations was the important thing first. Since the artwork he created have crossing boundaries both culturally and artistically, a viewer can have broader perspectives and critical analysis of life, death, and desire or the morality as well as science and technology or fiction. Picasso explains all these things in one artwork called "Girl Before the Mirror", Oil on canvas, 5'4" X 4'3."
McKay’s uses the art of dance and fashion to allure the men and women. He chose to have the woman dancing sensually and half clothed, to capture everyone’s attention. By having the woman portrayed this way, it signifies her worth. Similarly, Rossetti uses art to objectify women, however, she uses the art of painting and fashion as well. “In an Artist’s Studio”, he objectifies the woman by painting her the way he sees her, not the way she actually is; In doing this, it is symbolizing that woman are controlled.
Performance art- a creatively expresses promotion of ideas by artful means dramatically staged to challenge opinion and/or provoke purposeful action
Most generations have been influenced by a trend of music that inspires them to dress, behave, and talk in a certain way. There are people who have the special talent of making others relate to their emotions, thoughts, or ideas by creating music. In current society most artists decide to create videos to make their lyrics visual for their listeners and to earn more profit. The negative thing about the creation of music videos is the way in which females are stereotyped. In a lot of music videos, especially hip-hop/rap, females are portrayed in a negative way, which causes a harmful influence on the people who view them.
The Feminist Art Movement raised women’s status and the world’s awareness on gender equality through artworks that reflect women’s lives, feelings, and value. Through creativity, feminist artists invited the audience into their daily livings, to understand their strengths and efficiency, and to consider their needs and feelings. The movement expanded the traditional female role in society, such as housewives, to individuals with talents including artists, writers, the working class, and professionals. The female artists used media ranging from traditional techniques, like painting, to non-traditional art forms, such as installation art, performance art, conceptual art, and sculptures to share with the audience their new perspectives.
“Oh I think that I found myself a cheerleader.” This song lyric by OMI, certainly makes a statement about women; but what really is the meaning behind this lyric? Our country has become one that is obsessed with perfection, and controlled ideals; especially in regards to women. This song may have been written with good intentions, or no ulterior motive, but that is not the only way that is being perceived. The song is degrading, and sexist because of its concept of the perfect women, her objectification, and the blatant use of degrading stereotypes.
...er vision they choose to without worrying about perfection. The person viewing these paintings is free to see whatever they choose to as well. For example, many critics have viewed Women I as a demented, evil creature that must be feared. However, when I look at that painting, I see a strong, dominant woman who is able to stand up to others and face anything, without fear of ridicule or judgment. I see that this woman prevailed against all odds and continues to be confident in her own skin. Other people might look at this painting and just see an ugly or crazy person on the canvas or not have any strong opinion about it at all, while I, on the other hand, view a beautiful, independent woman. Each person viewing abstract art can have his or her own creative opinion regarding the work, which is why art such as Women I during this period is so appealing to me.
There is a long history of gender roles in society. The expectations of gender roles continually shift; however, there is not a time when women and men share the same equalities simultaneously. The idea of how men and women should act is instilled in us at a young age. I think it starts really young with girls and boys being told what they can be and when they see what they are expected to be, they abandon parts of them which society deems as undesirable. We don’t acknowledge how much pressure we put on men and women to conform to the ideas of gender roles but it is apparent in our media and in the history of our art. One of the most influential things about figurative art is that it has the ability to capture society’s concepts of how men and women are expected to be during that time period. One thing for certain about gender equality is that it has historically and predominantly been a women’s movement. This sculpture, entitled Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, stood out to me in particular. It is is made of pentelic marble and dates back to the early 5th century. The sculpture shows a woman with a restless face, clothed in a mantle and head piece while holding a scroll. This sculpture reflects the women’s intelligence and capabilities being overshadowed by her gender and
Since the beginning of time, women have always been seen as things purely for the pleasure and benefit of men. Women have always been objectified. Objectification is seeing and treating a person as if they did not have thoughts and feelings, as if they had the status of an object.{1} Only in recent years have they begun to be seen as individuals of equal intelligence and ability. You may think, ”Women have had equal rights for a while. I do not see how this is a problem.” It may not seem like women were given their rights recently, but in our history, women have been treated objectively for thousands of years, even dating back to biblical times. Still, even when women have the same rights, opportunities, and responsibility as men, women can be found almost everywhere being treated as though they were incompetent and lesser human beings.{4}
Art has evolved and regenerated itself many times during our human existence. These differences are defined through changes in styles under various theories. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a style known as Expressionism became popular. During this movement the artists were trying to use their artwork as a tool of expression toward life. It was mainly dominant in the nonrepresentational arts, such as abstract visual arts and music. It also was probably one of the most difficult movements to understand because the whole point of the piece lay within the artist. Not only was it a movement, it defined the act of art as a whole. From the beginning of time, each work of art, excluding replicas, show a way of expressing one's self. Every artist puts a piece of his or herself into their artwork. Who really is to determine what that work of art was meant to express?