Man Ray’s picture, Noire et Blanche, consists of a pale-faced model holding a darkly glossed African mask. There are several messages being hidden by the black mask in the image. Not all who view this photo know that the woman being photographed was Man Ray’s mistress, Kiki de Montparnasse. In this sense, the African mask can relate to the “savage” or “primitive” man that many artists associated with modernism are showing in their work. On the other hand, Kiki is reminding the audience of the fabricated beauty image that society has of the modern woman. With this beauty, selling a variety of consumer goods were featured in new forms of mass popular culture. Noire et Blanche adds a new twist on the English title by employing feminine adjectival
In the past few years, advertisement has changed significantly, and with it bringing many changes to our current society. Susan Bordo, a modern feminist philosopher, discussed in her article “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body” how current society has changed starting with Calvin Klein’s advertising campaign that showed men wearing nothing but underwear. Bordo argues how men are becoming the subject of the gaze, just as women were for centuries. This argument of the gaze is especially pronounced in John McTiernan’s film The Thomas Crown Affair, which focuses on two main characters, a man named Thomas Crown, who is a billionaire Manhattan financier, and a woman named Catherine Banning, and insurance investigator who is investigating Crown’s robbery of the 100-million-dollar painting, the “San Giorgio Maggiore Soleil Couchant”. The film addresses Bordo’s modern feminine and masculine gaze to target a wide range of adult audience.
In this paper it will be shown that the functionalists are correct. Functionalists argue that Blanche's self-concept, which she believes is a traditional upper class woman, eventually leads to her mental and emotional breakdown. Feminists argue Blanche is sent off to a mental hospital to hush up Stanley's crime of rape, not because of any illness. Although there is some value to the feminist interpretation, it contains several weaknesses. The following review of some aspects of the plot will reveal some of those weaknesses.
According to the book entitled Ways of Seeing written by John Berger, the power of an image is extraordinary given that it can speak a thousand words. This has also been enhanced by the rapidly evolving technology that elicits more subconscious views about an image by anyone who sees them online or in real life. Some professional writers like Susan Bordo have emphasized that pictures of men often receive a wide range of negative tones or opinions due to the physiological effects that are fashionable to society or any other individual who approves or disapproves the beauty in a portrait of two men or women (Berger 38). This essay offers my opinion concerning the pictures of the Doloce and Gabbana, the gay Italian designers, as well as that of
A person’s identity develops from birth and is shaped by many components, including values and attitudes given at home. We all have a different perspective about who we want to be and what fits better with our personality. However, is our identity only shaped by personal choices or does culture play an important role here? It is a fact that the human being is always looking for an inclusion in society. For instance, there is a clear emphasis in both, “Masks”, by Lucy Grealy, and “Stranger in the Village”, by James Baldwin that identity can be shaped by culture. Grealy does a great job writing about the main issue that has made her life so difficult: her appearance. Cancer has placed her in a position where people,
Women have spent a large amount of time throughout the 20th century fighting for liberation from a patriarchal form that told them that they must be quiet and loyal to their husbands and fathers. For the duration of this essay, I will be discussing how the “Modern Woman” image that appeared through the Art Deco style — that emulated ideas such as the femme fatale and masqueraded woman, and presented new styles to enhance women’s comfortability and freedom — is still prevalent and has grown in contemporary art and design since. Overall I will describing to you how fashion, sexuality, and the newly emerged ‘female gaze’, and how these tie in together — in both periods of time — to produce what can be described as powerful femininity.
Mapplethorpe’s project exhibited that gender stereotypes are strongly rooted in the public’s mind and distinguish how the world perceives a person just based on a handful of characteristics. Yet, he also showed how these genders are flexible in the sense that by applying a few of those stereotypes to someone of either gender, it can result in them being viewed in a new light. He for example manages to depict himself in a feminine nature even though biologically he is male. On the other end of the spectrum are Burson’s images. Lacking clear gender confinements and displaying androgynous qualities represents how such gender stereotypes are unnecessary. The overwhelming similarities that are found between the models unifies society by establishing that everyone starts off from the same blank slate of
Man Ray, film maker of Étoile de mer, began his career as an American painter and photographer. During his lifetime he became a prominent leader in the Dada and Surrealist society and was one of the only Americans to do this. He spent most of his career in photography; this is where he made his biggest impact on 20th century art. “The more commercial aspects of Many Ray’s photography provided him with a steady income. Famous as a portrait photographer, in the 1920s and 1930s he was also one of the foremost fashion photographers for magazines such as Harper’s Basaar, Vu and Vogue” (Foresta 2009). Man Ray was also very involved in avant-garde art. He worked with Duchamp and Katherine Dreier to co-found an organization called the Société Anonyme, which was “one of the first organizations to promote and collect avant-garde art” (Foresta 2009). After a while Ray began to feel like American’s were not appreciating his work for what it is and that never would, but Paris might.
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
Sophie Calle, professor of film and photography at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, is a renowned contemporary French artist. Sophie Calle is also a photographer of considerable acumen. As an educationist she has taught photography since 2005 at post-graduate level. Born in Paris, France in October of 1953, Sophie Calle is daughter to the also renowned Robert Calle. In her biography posted on the university page (www.egs.edu), it is claimed that the early associations and integration into her father’s social circles exposed her to a number of artists who influenced her decision to become an artist herself. Sophie Calle became an artist back in the 70’s and has since then recorded a myriad of artworks that includes writings, poetry, pictures and paintings. This essay will try to examine the underlying theme existent in the works of Sophie Calle as a means of better understanding her person. For the purpose of this essay, mainly the photographic works of Sophie shall be discussed.
In Jun'ichirō Tanizaki’s short story “The Tattooer”, Tanizaki features an ambitious tattoo artist who yearns to create a masterpiece on the skin of his ideal woman. Initially, this woman is anticipated as the one who holds the potential to achieve the status of a twisted goddess. Moreover, the artist’s process of forging his masterpiece on this particular woman acts as a stepping-stone to his imminent demise; she is a lethal double-edged sword. The tattoo, which takes the form of a black widow, metaphorically transforms the woman into a Japanized “black widow” herself. Accordingly, the dual nature of woman is portrayed as timeless beauty and infinite destruction.
The face is a central organ to personal identity. With it we can communicate human expression, feelings and characters with as little as the blink of an eye. On a deeper level, the face can be an art form that speaks to a universal understanding of the mind. Olivier De Sagazan uses the face to challenge conventions. He exposes human rawness and looks at cultural taboos. Sagazan’s artwork cannot be pinned down by language but by raw emotion. His unsettling performances represent visions of primitivism, agony, occult and other ancient cultural art forms that cover or deform the face in ways that can be both beautiful and confronting. Leading us to question, “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
As to her first name, Blanche, it is clear to the reader that white stands for purity, innocence, and virtue. This descrip...
Frida Kahlo’s honest, often bizarre, self-portraits reflect a beauty beyond the physical--- an impishness in the wide eyes, a small smirk teasing at the corners of her mouth. In her renderings, her cheeks are always heavily rouged, and exotic flowers adorn her raven hair. Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress uses the contrast of light --- Kahlo’s glowing skin --- and dark--- the black background, and in doing so, this painting not only communicates the subject’s outward beauty. It also points to an unspoken turmoil inside of the painter: as dark as the night sky and as deep as rolling sea.
An Image of Africa Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]. Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe.