Irving Penn: The Goddess Couture Model

Moving forward, Dyer begins to unpack the active/passive concept of images of models. Often male models are caught in the act doing hegemonically masculine things such as: baseball, mowing the lawn, grilling, painting, etc. When not caught in the act, the male model contorts his body in a way that shows off his muscles and emphasizes the potential for action. In contrast, women never do an action. They’re always sitting on a stool waiting for people to look at her. To look is to be active and to be looked at is to be passive. Men must remove any sense of passivity in their pose and look to continue to uphold their masculine identities.

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.

The portrait is displayed horizontally with a gold trimmed frame. The subject is a female that looks to be in her early 20’s sitting upright on a large brown chair. If the viewer travels up the painting the first indication of the woman’s class is her satin, blue dress. The saturated blue shines and falls in the light like water. Paired with the dress are her exceptionally detailed endings to her sleeves. The lace is even painted as though it is translucent, allowing a little of the blue dress to show through the sleeve. Flowers throughout history have symbolized innocence of a woman and her virginity. The repeating theme of flowers, in the sleeve cuffs and ribbon) in the woman’s attired suggests her purity or innocent nature. Another very details section of the painting includes the corset/torso details. The sewing suggests texture in the torso with small beading in between. Towards the top of the chest in the center, the female seems to bear an extravagant, ribbon piece with a tear drop bead in the center. The light pink

Vogue has not only contributed to the acceptance of trends in the fashion and beauty industry, but in addition has become a reward in the changed in cultural thinking, actions and dress of women. Vogue is the world’s most influential fashion magazine, first founded by Kelly Trepkowski, writing on art, culture and politics. Vogue is regularly criticized, along with the fashion industry it writes about, for valuing wealth, social connections, and low body weight over more noble achievements from its

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.

This picture was chosen for its background. The background adds detail so that the onlooker can create an idea of who this person might be. While the subject is still the main focus of the portrait the background is just as important as the subject because it suggests a culture that the viewer can make inferences about.

One of her photomontages named ‘The Beautiful Girl’ was created using clippings of car parts such as the BMW logo that is repeatedly used in the background, which suggests the comparison between superficial female progressive trends and the rapid progress of the industrial trends. In the centre of the collage is an image of a woman wearing a bathing suit with parts of her body missing, such as her head which has been replaced by a light bulb and above the light bulb is an oversized cut out piece of what was considered a modern woman’s hairstyle at the time. Surrounding the image of the woman is more mechanical objects such as a tire with a boxer which has been made to seem like its coming out of the tire, mechanical car parts and an oversized hand that is dangling a pocket watch and a face of a woman that has been distorted. The reason for her distorting and removing parts of the face is her representation of how females felt about their identities at the

Cosmopolitan magazine, also known as Cosmo, is a fashion magazine known to target the women audience, around the world, on issues such as beauty, sex appeal, health etc. The magazine appeals our audience through the use of celebrities, such as in the magazines below, Khloe Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and Demi Lovato. Through depicting each magazines cover, we will see the common patterns, and analyze the content of the texts displayed and how they relate to women’s style.

The model for this nude later became a Mistress of the creator, but she is unusual presence. It is part of a set of

The use of stunning models immediately attracts the audience’s attention. The first thing you see is four extraordinarily attractive human beings, one being a man, three being women. The women’s hands are all over the man,

How a women looks after all those hard years of being a mother, household etc. What I love about this realistic portrait is a mature woman with saggy cheeks and deep folds around her mouth. The portrait represents the time of Flavian emperors (A.D. 68-69) therefore the hairstyle of the tight curls on top of the head is perfect. If I'm not mistaken even men would wear wigs that had tight curls just like on the portrait. Specially those men who worked in courts or stuff like that. According to the summary of the Portrait of a Mature Woman “The body type, known as the small Herculaneum Woman, was commonly used for Roman portraits of women.” The piece was created in Asia

Before I go any further I'd like to focus on the white background a little more.

Carol Ann Duffy gives art a new perspective through her poem “Standing Female Nude” by showing us the point of view the model, who poses nude for the artist, has toward art, artists, and the bourgeoisie. The poet questions the concept of ‘great art’ by voicing the perspective of an unfamiliar source. Through the eyes of the speaker, we can clearly see the harsh class injustice inherent in the art world as well as the female suppression in society in general. Duffy also shows that the model isn’t the slightest bit ashamed of what she’s

This excerpt shows how more emphasis is put on women’s appearance and its keep up, and also shows the negative connotation of this prettiness; it is associated with shallowness. Not only is there an assumption that women spend much of their time on their appearance, but also there is the connected fact that others pay more attention to their appearance than their other character traits. This is still a reality of today as can be seen on the red carpet. Female celebrities have a whole industry devoted to making them look fashionable and pretty for events. The focus of these events becomes what they’re wearing rather than their work as actresses and singers.

Additionally, the ideal images of masculine and feminine beauty illustrate the Cosmopolitan Hotel as a place where such beauty exists. The male model’s eyes are looking straight into the camera, at his audience. He is directing the message of the entire advertisement to men like himself. He is very clean, well-shaven, and has a great face structure and jawline. This attracts other men who are socially-active to stay at the Hotel because they would like to be seen as successful and handsome as he does. On his legs is a beautiful female model portrayed as a poolside attendant, spread out on her back. She’s arching her back to serve him a drink. This shows that she is someone who is willing to“bend backwards” to serve her customer. This shows the customer service The Cosmopolitan Hotel is offering. The model is not dressed in proper uniform. Instead, she is wearing a revealing swimsuit that is not appropriate for work. Her arm behind her head, elbows