Essay on Annie Liebovitz's Women

For my term paper I decided to go to the Cantor Museum in Palo Alto, and I chose to focus on two portraits of women from two distinct time periods. First, I decided on the portrait of Margaret Blagge, Wife of Sidney, 1st Earl of Godolphin. This portrait was painted by the artist Matthew Dixon in 1675, in the Baroque period of art. The portrait of Margaret Blagge was done in England, and it was painted as an oil on canvas. The second artwork I chose to compare was the Portrait of Sally Fairchild by John Singer Sargent. This portrait was done from the year 1884 to 1887 during the Realism movement in art. The portrait of Sally Fairchild was painted in the United States of America, and was painted as an oil on canvas. When comparing these two portraits

It gives the audience an ultimate insight into the world of a female during the time portrayed. It shows the clothing worn, the position they are stood in and the facial expressions they wear. It shows things as they are without too much distortion. For example in Tracy Moffet’s artwork “useless,1974” the artwork shows a woman wearing 70’s style clothing, stood in a sort of dominated nature , washing the lights of a car while wearing quite a resentful face. Accompanied by the caption “ Her father’s name for her was ‘useless’ ” we are able to see a woman in a period of great feminine oppression, forced to wash a car for a man who considers her to be useless. This kind of irony shows the insignificance thought to be surrounding women during this time.

The curators of the exhibition “Vienna’s Shooting Girls: Jewish Women Photographers” were Iris Meder and Andrea Winklbaeuer. These independent further promoted the feminist notion of successful women and equity in the workforce and skilled trades. Their technique in presenting the photographs was not radical; however some of the material they chose to present was risqué. Meder and Winklbaeuer captured the individuality of the photographers with the selected pieces and chose works with natural positions in contrast to stiff, old-fashioned poses that museum-goers were acclined to seeing on the walls. This revival of female empowerment in German culture stands as a memory

Taking to task historically defined negative stereotypes of black woman, I examine the construction of black female representation in photography that critiques and offers counter-representation to the on-going racialized imagery that persists today.

From my observation, I can tell that Cindy Sherman works consists of self-portraits that offer critiques of gender and identity. Sherman's work interest me because she inserts herself into her art and expresses her own portrayals of female stereotypes found in films, television, and advertising. In Sherman's seminal series titled Untitled Film Stills I noticed that she examines and distorts femininity as a social construct, and she often uses a large color scale in her photographs. Sherman’s work puts me in the mind of the circus, because many of her photographs consist of clowns, costume dress up, and disfigured mannequins. I find her work to be far from mediocre, because her pieces stand out and demand to be seen whether the photographers

When writing about a work of art, one’s opinion can influence the way in which another perceives the work of art they are viewing. When multiple individuals analyze the same work of art, their opinions pertaining to the work of art can vary greatly. For instance, when observing O’ Keefe’s artwork, multifarious opinions and ideas come to the minds of those analyzing the work of art. There is a common belief that her artwork symbolizes femininity, considering the way in which she utilizes flowers and the implied relationship that some are capable of associating with a female body structure. However, when one expresses their ideas of a work of art they can potentially influence or contradict the beliefs contained by other individuals viewing the

The analysis of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing helps illuminate the portrayal of women and thus the idea of feminism is brought into effect. Both Berger and Dunham try to explain the effects of visuals of women in society and although both writers are arguing about different mediums, both ultimately

Garry Winogrand was best known for his portrayal of American life, and social issues within America. One of his most famous, and well-known bodies of work that was very representative of his style of photography was the series of photos known as “Women are beautiful”. His primary concern with the series was to show not only the beauty of women in situations where beauty was expected or common, but also within the average life of independent women of the era, the latter is displayed very well in the photo Bag Lady. This photo contains a women making her way down the street in casual clothing carrying some personal belongings, her intention is not posing, or conveying her beauty, she is simply going through her day to day life, and Garry’s message

While men have been consistently involved in family photography for decades, and are ultimately responsible for the establishment of family photography as fine art, “family photography” as a genre is assumed today to be “women’s work.” There is in fact a prominent and compelling collection of photographic work that exists and illustrates the way men capture family within a frame. For better or worse, male photographers were crucial in the establishment of family photography being accepted as a genre of fine art photography. Family photography can serve as a means to form a human connection. While the darkest moments of family life might not be included in a family album they are relatable at the deepest, purest level. Male and female family photographers alike were responding to a need to depict domestic pains felt through the universality of family. The images retained within a family album diverge from fine art photographs because they attempt to only memorialize the idealized stories of childhood and family travels and traditions. The ways men and women grapple with public and private spaces are inherently very different. Consequently, the perception of family work that brings the private to their eyes of the public falls along gender

Historically, women have has a large impact on the art community for hundreds of years. In this paper I will show how females how impacted the art movement in the early 19th century and the late 18th century. Females have been depicted in fine works of arts for hundreds of years. In the late 18th century women were painted in backgrounds of landscapes and also they began to be painted nude. In that Time period the men in painting were seen as the minds of the world and the women were seen as the heart, soul, mother and cooks of the world. In this paper I will take two works of art; John Vanderlyn’s “Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos’’ and Lilly Martin Spencer: “Kiss Me and You’ll Kiss the Lasses” and show how the women impacted the arts

During the 70s groundbreaking movements were created and creativity filled the air. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop women from receiving the short end of the stick. Although there were plenty of female artists at this time, they were treated as second class citizens, unequal to men. Some art shows would only allow so many female artists display their works at one time. As a result, all the female artist took their crafts to vent their frustration and hardships. At first the public’s reaction was unfavorable they considered this topic too personal. Minimal artist emphasized the importance of having an objective point of view. However, this didn’t faze the artists. Their response was to start an academic program only for women

From this angle, the poem’s fusion of the visual and verbal medium can be seen as a complex play of appearance versus reality. As Sontag argues, “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still. Or they enlarge a reality that is felt to be shrunk, hollowed out, perishable, remote” (137). In other words, the metaphorical trope of the photograph conceals as much as it reveals. Like the “blurred lines and grey flecks” which obscure the speaker’s figure, the picture conceals the long-standing patriarchy which buries the history and identity of women. Nonetheless, just because the identity of women has been suppressed does not mean that it ceases to exist. Like the inerasable smears,

To begin it is important to understand the emerging feminist art movement in the 1970s. The movement was called the Women’s Liberation Movement

Cindy Sherman is an artist who not only constructs identity through the recreation of others, whether real or imagined, using herself as the model, but also through the honesty of the posed situations. Specifically, she allows the shutter release for her camera to be seen in most of her works, so that the viewer knows that nothing of what they see is true. In doing so, she explores how identity is constructed, and what perceptions result of the constructions. Generally, our interpretations of art, and thus the constructions of identity have similarities, especially when we are of similar backgrounds, such as being female or American. I listed those personal ascriptions because those are the dispositions that much of Sherman’s art relates to. As a feminist artist, Sherman’s art stresses the importance of females, the importance of the identities we assume and associate with certain qualities of women, and what that can mean. Thus, Sherman explores how our preconceived notions and dispositions can affect how we view art, specifically art that pertains to females. For another artist, Kim Noble, identity is explored through the synonymity of it and art.

While studying art history in Pre-Industrial Visual Cultures this semester, one theme has become painfully obvious. There are few if any women artists included in the study of art history. If you dig deep into the books you can find mention of many unknown, unrecognized and often times very talented women artists from the past. Women in history are simply not recognized, and this is due to a large extent to their exclusion from the art world. My paper chooses to focus on a few female artists of the sixties and seventies who sought to make up for past history and ensure women were known. These women