Analysis Of Griselda Pollock, Mary Cassatt : Painter Of Women And Children

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. She came from a rather large family who moved quite frequently. Mary loved to draw and no matter the location or where she lived, she would always find the time to draw. It wasn’t very long until she was interested in more than just drawing. As soon as she discovered that there were more objects, such as canvas and cloth for oil painting, to work with, she decided to try painting. Painting was just the beginning for Mary and soon after had the dream of one day settling in Europe where she would become a painter for a living. Not only was Mary very stubborn, she was also very determined to make her dream a successful reality.

In 1971, Linda Nochlin issued her article “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? This idea of aesthetic genius, says Nochlin, is fiction. Art is rarely produced entirely by the artist for the idea of personal expression. Few identifiers in contemporary art have been as fraught as the term feminist art. What does it mean, who defines it, and how does it relate to past accomplishments of the feminist movement?

Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity was written by Griselda Pollock in 1988, and later published in The Expanding Disclosure in 1992. Griselda Pollock is an art historian, and writes this article for fellow art historians. This is an article written to show the different approaches to femininity in the late 19th century, mainly dealing with the field of art. This article shows how during this time period there were women artists, but due to the gendered ruled ideas attached to art history, these women are largely ignored by art historians. Pollock thought that these women artists are primarily overlooked due to the fact that they are judged by the same standards that are affixed to the work of their male counterparts. But she argues

(Millhouse, 2011) In the 1980’s Pollock’s Feminism “critiqued the essential myths of individualism, the artist, and the social constructions of femininity and masculinity that define bourgeois culture”. While the 70’s feminism movement aim was to stand next to the existing masculine dominated culture. “Feminism's encounter with the canon has been complexed and many-leveled: political ,ideology,mythological,methodological and psycho-symbolic” (Pollock, 1999). The 1970’s movement was followed by the immediate task which was “the need to rectify the gaps in historical knowledge created by the consistent omission of women of all cultures from the history of art” (Pollock, 1999). The only art that was put on display was significantly male dominated work, if you wanted to see work created by women, you would have to view them “in a basement or storeroom of a national gallery” (Pollock, 1999). Female artists are only known in their own category of female artists while male artists don’t require a separate category . Art that is created by females have been historically dismissed from the art historical canon as craft, as opposed to fine art. The evident of

Jackson Pollock was a legendary, novel, abstract expressionist who has created numerous paintings through his drip-style, action painting technique (Goodnough, 2012). Theosophical influence arose from Phillip Guston and Thomas Hart Benton, while in the early stages of the artist’s life. Muralists, such as Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera were also admired and studied by Pollock. He was captivated by the unorthodox techniques of David Alfaro Siqueiros which contributed to the abstract style of Jackson Pollock (Solomon, 1987).

This art work clearly shows that women and their roles were becoming viewed as more valuable and acceptable. One element of the art that expresses this higher role that women possessed is demonstrated by the fact that there are two women – probably mother and grandmother – placed in the center of this painting; this may be representing a previously learned term called “republican motherhood” (168). Surprisingly, the Louisiana Purchase is an event that wonderfully displays how women were becoming more accepted. In 1804, when Jefferson called on Lewis and Clark to go see what the new land had to offer, it is mentioned that a women by the name of Sacajawea was of assistance to them (222). By her helping out these two American men, she showed

In addition, I will examine the differences between male and female sexuality and how each tended to be perceived and treated by society. Then, I will look at prominent female artists and their personal experiences and beliefs on feminism and the female in their art focusing on how it tended to be received along how male artists responded to it. Mainly, I will be analyzing the clash of sexualized images in art, focusing on the differences not only between male made art versus female art, but the differences in the women’s art community, as well. What are the reasons and goals for women to use a “sexualized image” of women in their art versus

When Pollock was witnessed painting, people would refer to him as ‘dancing across the canvas’. Each painting was like a dance routine and he let the painting guide his hand around and around in circles until it was completed. Pollock did not like for his audience to be able to identify any trace of academic artistic quality. He was even notorious for signing his paintings by pressing the palm of his hand down onto the wet paint. It was efficient for him, especially since in his ‘drip’ paintings he would never lift a brush. What this did to his work then was no longer did he display a replica of a scene or person like most landscape and portrait artists, but instead he displayed his fluent motion.

Mary Cassatt is known world-wide for her impressing art in which she focuses mainly in the everyday life of women and children. She is an American artist born in Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844, but later relocates to Europe in 1866 to pursue to work in art. This was mainly due to her family’s and society’s objections to women in the field of art. There she met and befriended famous Impressionist Edgar Degas. Because of her close friendship with Degas, she grew courage to continue to do art in her own way. She continued to paint until she slowly began to lose her eyesight and later died in 1926. Cassatt was part of the Impressionist style movement, in which she painted portraits unlike many others who painted landscapes (biography.com). Her artwork

By using her own views of maternity and feminism, Lilly was able to express them in her paintings that would show the ideals of middle-class women and of their self-recognition.5 Lilly’s painting, Kiss Me and You’ll Kiss the ‘Lasses, (Figure 2.) became very popular and even appealed in the Association’s Cosmopolitan Art Journal’s subscribers.6 One look gives a clear picture of what a household was in those days. From the rug on the floor to the nicely placed jars and utensils, from the beautifully tied apron on the woman to her innocent smile, everything emitted her ideas of a household. Lilly put some humor into her painting, pushing the idea that chores do not have to be boring. Elizabeth Ellet, one of the admirers and patrons of Lilly, believed that Lilly, despite the humor in her paintings, carried morals she aspired to

Since Georgia O’Keeffe defines Albert Stieglitz as this woman artist’s source of talent, it also derives how her painting should be interpreted from him. Both fictionalized and real Mr. Stieglitz perceive O’Keeffe’s art in the same manner, which is in psycho-analytic terms. As a result, Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings are understood as being interconnected with her gender. In the television film, Stieglitz makes one critic declare, “Her great, painful, ecstatic climaxes makes us, at last, to know that when women feel strongly, they feel through the womb. They paint through the womb. Images of O’Keeffe’s flower paintings are presented alongside art critics’ comments like this and reinforces the concept that they illustrate the female genitals.

In the first example, a painting done by Norman Rockwell, a girl is portrayed as “more kittenish than hoydenish” the girl and her appearance are described as “soft and tentative”. She is with a boy who is awkward, she touches just his hand and that is only to tell his fortune. The girl “looks into his eyes with confidence and no assumption of consequences to her boldness”. The girl described, was the first step away from “Mary Pickford” yet is still far away from “Flapper”. In the cover the next year, the boy and girl are shown again, this time already contrasting from the Mary Pickford type; the boy and girl share a closeness - “he is standing close in an attitude of embrace” where last time there seemed to be a line drawn in-between them. The girl’s appearance is beginning to change as well, “her dress is beginning to be tomboyish” she wears a sweater and a skirt opposed to a one piece dress and it is no longer soft and delicate. The girl has a “glance backward at the young man- awkward boy no longer- is more conscious of possible consequences of this exciting intimacy”. The stark differences in the looks that each girl is giving is enough to show the changing behavior of this new generation

Judy Chicago (artist, author, feminist and educator) has a career that now spans five decades. In the late 1960s, her inquiry into the history of women began a result of her desire to expose the truth of women’s experiences, both past and present. She still continues on a crusade to change the perception of women from our history, “Women’s history and women’s art need to become part of our cultural and intellectual heritage.” (Chicago, 2011) Through our history women - their struggles, accomplishments and contribution to history, have been overlooked, downplayed and even completely written out of a male dominated society and culture. In anthropologist Sherry Ortner’s 1974 essay “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” she supports this view, writing “…woman is being identified with—or, if you will, seems to be a symbol of—something that every culture devalues,” (Ortner, 1974) Where Mendieta's work primarily came from a striving to belong and an understanding of where she came from, I feel that Chicago's aim was to find a place for all women, past and present in this world, starting with herself in the art world. Chicago did explore her peronal heritage in later works entitled 'Birth Project' and 'Holocaust Project'.

Stylistic and devised with two distinct media and movement, and these artists have created reminiscent portrayals of educated women. The undertows of these artworks subjects reveal the likes of emboldened females, and mutually illustrated by their brilliant artists. Fittingly, an International Women’s Day slogan, stated, “Educate a girl, and you empower a nation," a dictum that will prove transcended and parroting both artwork’s focused images (Philanthropy Age et al.). Now, that is a picture and caption moments worth captivating. On one hand, we have John Opie a British artist who was sort after for numerous commissioned portraits by the elites at the time, and a lifetime that bestowed over 300-paintings.

Art historians have sought for a century to understand the motivation that drove Mary Cassatt against critical opinion and away from her early subject matter toward her series of Mothers and their Children that occupied her for what is now considered to be the prime of her artistic career. The series somewhat resembles the familiar images of Madonna of Child in visual organization, yet the level of intimacy shared by her subjects, while comparable in its level of intensity is set apart by the total absorption of her subjects in their own shared moment, completely independent and entirely unaware of the viewer’s presence. This was a controversial and highly progressive step at a time when the majority of art was painted by men, assumed a