The Presence Of Botero Women

Body image encompasses how we perceive our bodies, how we feel about our physical experience as well as how we think and talk about our bodies, our sense of how other people view our bodies, our sense of our bodies in physical space, and our level of connectedness to our bodies. Over the past three decades, while America has gotten heavier, the "ideal woman" presented in the media has become thinner. Teenagers are the heaviest users of mass media, and American women are taught at a young age to take desperate measures in the form of extreme dieting to control their

Fernando Botero's style is arguably one of the most distinctive of artists still alive today. Embracing a sweeping aesthetic that attempts to celebrate the vivacity of life with seemingly disproportionately enlarged figures, Botero's style celebrates an assortment of riotous colors while alternating between scenes of his native Columbia and social-political themes (Haas). An examination of the development of Botero's style indicates that it has a number of disparate sources and influences which informed the artist, who ultimately refined and merged them with characteristics from his own life to render works that are inimitably his own. An analysis of key works of artistry from Botero support the hypothesis that his larger-than-life style of painting and sculpture was conceived of as a means of conveying the richness and complexity of the events, feelings and actions that constitute the scope of life itself.

In Susan Bordo’s article “Never Just Pictures: Bodies and Fantasies” this is an article that is informative as well as interesting. Bordo mentions celebrity names like Alicia Silverstone and famous dieting products like Citra Lean to introduce the “thin” trend in today’s popular culture. The author explains how today’s society explores different media cites to acknowledge how individuals should appear in today’s world. Advertisements have also become a big part on the reflection of society’s beliefs. Bordo talks about body figures that were once considered normal, have become known as an abnormal appearance. Bordo wants to convince the audience that being thin has become an issue that must be addressed by the general public,

In Susan Bordo’s article entitled, “Never Just Pictures,” Bordo explores the driving forces behind the ever-intensifying, pervasive, and obsessive behaviors related to perceptions of and adherence to “acceptable” dictates regarding body image. Bordo’s insightful observations, examples, historical development, and logic shed light on how these dictates developed and from where they currently emanate, including the self-appointed societal, cultural, philosophical, and psychological “gatekeepers” of beauty in today’s society.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

There are rules in place meant to instill the value of slimness in women and shame women who deviate from those ideals. West (2016) describes the ideal women in her chapter Bones as “graceful” and “slim” and “she can put her feet up on a chair and draw her knees to her chest. She can hold an ocean in her clavicle.” Harris-Moore (2016) discusses in her chapter about mass media and perfection that the recent steps away from the slim ideal are seen in the recent Dove campaigns featuring “real” women who more resemble Lena Dunham’s nakedness. Harris-Moore goes on to state while that is a progressive idea, ABC did not want to air a Lane Bryant commercial in which a fuller-figure woman lounged around her apartment in lingerie. This may because the woman is in lingerie and ABC is reluctant to sexualize fuller-figured bodies, or because the commercial deviates too far from the thin ideal with a commercial model being portrayed in a nude landscape where her “imperfections” are the selling point. The Dove commercial is showing “real women,” portraying nakedness, while the Lane Bryant commercial is portraying a nude

During the 1800’s modesty had s strong hold on society. Women were made to wear full length clothing at all times, showing as little skin as possible. The sight of skin was thought to send males into temptation. Even men were made to cover up more. For example at the beach even men had to cover themselves almost fully. In contrast the people of the ancient Pompeii where nakedness and sex were the norm. One can imagine the trouble that would be caused in the 19th Century society when an artist tried to display a naked body. However the painter managed to evade these restrictions and not to cause uproar amongst the public. He did this by using the cover of classical mythology and the figure of Venus, most often seen naked. This theme was actually very common of that time period, depicting eroticism under the cover of classical history. In this way it became more of a history lesson and less of an erotic, idle work. Thus Cabanel’s artwork, cloaked in historicism, appealed to the people of a higher level of society. Robert Rosenblum, curator and art critic/teacher, wrote of the painting “This Venus hovers somewhere between an ancient deity and a modern dream”; he described “the ambiguity of her eyes, that seem to be closed but that a close look reveals that she is awake ... A nude who could be asleep or

Slick, steamy, soiled, smeared: Such is the work of Marilyn Minter, the painter and photographer whose composite images of female body parts and excess (think a mouthful of muddy pearls) have been embraced and reviled for their sensual magnetism for more than three decades. Collected by everyone from the Guggenheim to Jay Z—she makes a dancing cameo in his video for “Picasso Baby”—Minter is about to receive her first museum retrospective, which will open Saturday at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston before it travels to Denver, Orange County, and finally the Brooklyn Museum in the fall of 2016.

HOW NUDISM CAME TO BE ART AND WHY YOU SHOULD'NT HESITATE TO HANG NUDE PAINTINGS ON YOUR LIVING ROOM WALLS!. (PT.2).

Edgar Degas,one of the most obsessed painters when it comes to the female body in the entire history of art, producing almost six hundred images of ballet dancers alone and many nude works. This book examines these two aspects of the artist's body of work. The majority of works provide an insight to the varied selection of Degas' ballet dancers, on stage ‘Dancers on Stage, ca.1883’ (page 26), at rehearsal ‘The Rehearsal, 1874’(page17) or in their dressing rooms ‘Dancer adjusting her tights, ca.1880’(page 59), and Those of his nudes,washing ‘Woman In a Tub,1884’(page 77) or drying themselves ‘After the bath:Woman drying herself, 1890-95’(page 108) and of a women combing their hair ‘Nude Woman coming her hair,1879-83’( page 88).The variety of

In the documentary Killing Us Softly, they had a quote from Cindy Crawford that read, “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford.” Societies idea of beauty sends a message that the thinner you are, the better you look. This has affected women of all ages, sometimes even men. We look at overweight people like they're disgusting, and praise thin people. The magazine cover of Kim Kardashian is a great example, saying that this weight gain is “Pregnant Kim’s nightmare” and comparing her to a killer whale. Fat shaming is a huge problem, just like Laci Green asks, ‘Why is fat such a big deal?” (Green) She also brings up in her video the fact that fat shaming leads to other very serious mental and health problems, such as eating disorders. According to our lecture, as many as 10 million women and 1 million men suffer from anorexia or bulimia.

An inspection of the paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Cezanne points the viewer to one major component, figures, and bodies in the nude. It is evident that Matisse’s Bonheur de Vivre and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was inspired to some extent by Cezanne’s painting The Large Bathers. This essay will discuss further how Cezanne’s artwork was an inspiration to Matisse and Picasso as well as how these two artists work broke free from Cezanne’s stylistic elements. The beginning of the 20th century brought about a new way in which the human body was portrayed by artists in their paintings.

In general, a photographic practice that involves illustrations of the nude female figure that is created for art projects face the problem of objectification. Even though, artists have battled the female objectification by employing various photographic techniques to alter the perception of the eroticism, it is not possible to escape the arising sexual interpretation, when most of the time the portrayals of unclothed female literally depict the identifiable parts for sexual arousal. It cannot be denied that the images are erotic. However, they are not created to appeal to the male auditory. It can be clearly distinguishable what is displayed, but usually the reason is refraining from being a sexual imagery, instead it is much deeper of what

Paul Cezanne's "Large Bathers," of 1906, and Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," of 1907, are different in many ways but similar in a few. The image of a nude woman, or group of women, had been so “overdone” by the early 1900’s, that artists began finding new and innovative ways to represent the female figure(s).

Women have let the idea of looking beautiful take over their self-confidence and life. Healthy Place, an online magazine teaching women about living a healthy life, says that, “today's fashion models weigh twenty-three percent less than the average female, and a young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel.” So why do women push themselves to be excessively thin when these models are anomalies? They do it because the media tells them that this look is the only look that can attract men. Even if a woman is “beautiful” according to the media’s standards, she will always find something about her body that she hates, whether it is her hair or her belly button, no women is completely satisfied. Our society is very accepting of different religions and lifestyles, so why can we not accept different types of beauty as well?