Bocou Sexual Identity

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?

The question of “why feminism?” has been presented to a number of female artists who deal with strong constructions of gender in their work. The answer, overwhelmingly, has been the desire to modify stereotypes about women that have prevailed in male-dominated art history. In the 1960’s, women who explored “feminist” issues in their art were criticized, causing mass mobilization and conscious raising as to what, exactly, was the purpose of feminist art (Crowell, 1991). Since that time, women have been trying desperately to overturn the art world and rescind the traditional stereotypes and images that have plagued them. Feminist artists created somewhat of a unified front during that

The visibility of female artists has increased over the years allowing for viewers to experience art through a woman’s perspective. Although there is still a largely male dominated art scene in our contemporary world, as a young female artist it is becoming apparent that more and more female artists are being given exposure publically and in private gallery spaces. Given that the art world is highly subjective

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” -Oscar Wilde. Women are wild, sensitive, magnificent, mysterious, and above all: individual. Art’s many different medias allowed artist throughout the ages to capture women at both their strongest and most vulnerable points. It has the power to capture a woman: as a naïve, young girl clutching her brother as they are painted into a lasting portrait, a golden statue of an angel sent down to Earth to help a saved man take his first steps into an eternal life with God, to the powerful goddess, Artemis, transforming a hunter into a deer and having his hunting dogs tragically attack him. The six pieces of art chosen express the individuality of each women who has walked, walks, and will walk the earth.

How do the works of Yasumasa Morimura, Julie Rrap and Anne Zahalka challenge conventional ways in which gender has been depicted historically in the visual arts?

Despite evident differences in the compositional elements of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, both utilise a composition with a shallow plane to distort visual perception in their work. This distortion promotes the spectator to revaluate the way they perceive these female prostitute subjects. Picasso’s treatment of paint and use blocked colours in Les Demoiselles creates the sensation of a flat, two-dimensional image, signifying a radical break from traditional modes of representation. The lack of depth in the painting pushes the figures of female prostitutes on top of each other, layering the stark angles and sharp forms that make up their bodies. In addition, this layering on such a large scale (243.9 cm × 233 cm) creates a feeling that the figures are pushing beyond the boundaries of the work and imposing themselves onto the spectator. Furthermore, the stances of the prostitutes, who are dramatically flaunting their bodies with arms raised and torsos presented openly, fills the frame, refusing the spectator to accesses to other areas of the image. Instead the female figures dominate the attention of the viewer, in some ways empowering these figures who previously lacked representation. These formal elements of composition all come together in Les Demoiselles to challenge the spectator’s ways of viewing the females in the work.

In Chapter 3 of his book, “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger argues that in western nude art and present day media, that women are largely shown and treated as objects upon whom power is asserted by men either as figures in the canvas or as spectators. Berger’s purpose is to make readers aware of how the perception of women in the art so that they will recognize the evolution of western cultured art.

She studied metal welding at Skowhegan Art School. She also lived in Rome, Italy where she studied art on a scholarship where she experimented with her black drawing and where her “worldscapes” were born. Her works began to be displayed in-group shows here and there, but it was not until nineteen sixty where a highly respected curreater of art gave her a solo show (Lee Bontecou Biography). “Since Bontecou often worked in her studio with a radio tuned to United Nations reports on the global political scene, it is tempting to interpret these works as social critiques…”(Sculpture). Her works can easily be tied to the war, as well as what was going on all around the world politically and just tension between nations. At this point in time it was a very male-dominated society and you can imagine how Lee Bontecou was viewed. First and foremost she is a woman, second she is educated, and is well aware of politics and incorporates that into her work as an artist. Not only is she an artist most people would associate a woman artist as a painter, not Bontecou she is a welder something that was considered just not lady like. In the nineteen sixties there was the uprising of the feminist movement, something that Bontecou was a part of. “Bontecou’s dark holes became one of the most powerful and disturbing aspects of her work. While the art press of the 1960s predominately interpreted them as destructive images associated with female sexual orifices, Bontecou continued to insist that they were also eyes” (Sculpture). Once again with the sixties being the patriarchal society that is was men had to comment on the black hole as being female genitalia. This day and age there have been major strides in society thanks to the feminist movement, but there still leaves some people who cannot appreciate it with out objectifying it because a woman created

The study of why women artists have systematically been erased from history and why currently the exhibition of women's art is not valued as much as the male artists' continues. There have been many theories behind the eradication of women artists from history. At the beginning of the Women's Liberation Movement, an art historian by the name of Linda Nochlin published an article called, "Why have there been no great women artists?" In here article, she addressed her own question offering one of the first consciously feminist challenges to the established canons of art history. Her query proved to be a rallying cry for women artists in the fervent days of the Women's Liberation movement and offered fragments of a manifesto to women artists, and others, intent on reexamining and ultimately restructuring the discipline (Morse, 1992). Nochlin argues that contemporary feminists contend that there is a different "greatness" between men's art and women's art. This view of art undermines the general discipline. It categorizes its value in order to give it a higher classification among gender. Many women are trying to delve back into history and recapture any trace of artistic women in order to document and arrange their

“Sisterhood is powerful” took on many different meanings when comparing the artist examined in class. “Sisterhood” can be defined as a group of feminist joining together by common interest of making a change. “Powerful” refers to the actions they take to make that change. While there were many female groups forming, each group took a different approach towards voicing their concerns about society’s female roles. These approaches can be simplified by the following: rebellion, embracement, and strength.

Female representation in contemporary art scarce compared to male artists, so these two pieces, Madame de Pompadour at Her Toilette and Self Portrait as a Tehuana are great examples of how women are presented and how they showcase themselves in similar ways although these were made almost two decades apart. At a glance they may seem like completely different works, but with further examination we are able to uncover their many similarities. Both works focus on self-representation, identity, fashion, and femininity.

In this essay I will be looking into the work of Marina Abramovic in relation to the Feminist movement. By looking at her work, I aim to emphasise her influence on this movement. In this essay, I shall also briefly examine the works of Abramovic, particularly Art is Beautiful, Artist must be Beautiful (1975) and four of her performances from her Rhythm series (10 (1973), 0 (1974), 2 (1974), and 5 (1974)). I shall describe the history of the Feminist movement and its influence in order to develop an understanding of Abramovic’s influence.

In many works of art throughout history, female breasts have been featured prominently and in the nude. The symbolic meaning credited to the breast was usually associated with fertility and nourishment, both spiritual and physical, and in the wider sense, with life. Eroticism, nourishment, abundance, expression, feminine power, as well as feminine subservience, are different contradicting themes of the breast played out in time.

Chinese Feminist Art is not only different from traditional Chinese female art as it clearly emphasises on female characteristics, but also distinctive from western feminist art in the way that it embraces Chinese culture to the greatest extent. Unlike Western Feminist Art which is tightly

There is some disparity between the way critics and philosophers like Judith Butler view Cindy Sherman's work and the way that Cindy Sherman speaks of her photographs. It may be the disparity that exists between many modern artists, who often operate on an intuitive level, and the philosopher critics who comment upon them from a theoretical perspective or a pre-established framework. On one level, Cindy Sherman may only be playing "dress-up" (as she herself admits) in her famous History Portraits (1989-90) (Berne, 2003). On another level, however, her "dressing-up" may be indicative of a deeper problem in modern gender identity theory which is the problem of "becoming" woman (Butler, 1994) or, as Judith Butler sees it, the problem of performativity. In the History Portraits, Sherman may certainly be said to be "performing" and perhaps even attempting to "become" the male and female characters she represents in her work. Indeed, it is upon such a premise that philosopher critics and gender theorists find her work so engaging. This paper will examine Cindy Sherman and her History Portraits in relation to Judith Butler's gender theory, the portrayal of the self, and how gender identity has changed throughout the course of modern history. It will examine representations of womanhood from Romantic Idealism to Post-Modernism and will also