Professor Cacoilo
Art and Women
Post 4: Five Women Artists
Throughout history and up until today, women have always been subject to the male gaze and are seen as an object with the sole purpose to entertain and cater to men. Living through a patriarchal society, it has been difficult for women to create their vision and have it publicly recognized. Over time, women have worked their way to fight for a voice in society and made their name known in this male dominated world. Women have gained control of their art and body and choose to create art in which women aren't subject to gender roles and are free to express their sexuality in the way they choose to. Five fearless contemporary artists who celebrate women and spread women empowerment are Judy Chicago, Marilyn Minter, Barbara Kruger, Yoko Ono and Lisa Yuskavage.
Judy Chicago (Born July 20, 1939 - Chicago, IL)
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| Entrance of The Dinner Party |
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| The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago, 1974-79 |
"Judy Chicago is an artist, author, feminist, and educator" who focuses her art on the roles of women throughout history (Judy Chicago). When I visited the Brooklyn Museum earlier this month, I was able to see her most famous work of art, an installation called The Dinner Party. This piece was in the works from 1974-1979 with the help of many volunteers. I had the chance to speak with one of the educators at the Brooklyn Museum and received great insight about this piece. It was said that Judy's Chicago's inspiration for this project comes from her own experiences and she wanted to shed light on the many female artists that have been overlooked throughout history. As I walked into the room I was surprised with the scale of her installation. As seen in the photo, it's a triangular shaped table that has 13 place settings on each side that was inspired by the 13 attendees at the Biblical "Last Supper". Each place setting represents a woman and is designed unique to that specific woman's culture. The triangular shape was meant to have no "head" of the table which promoted equality and the triangle has been a feminine symbol in art. I noticed that on each plate, there is an up close picture of a flower that symbolizes fertility of flowers as well as the fertile nature of women as mothers. It also took the shape of a butterfly and vulva which gives it a feminine quality and how women should be proud in claiming their sex. The Dinner Party also includes a tiled floor that has 999 names of mythical and historical women. This is meant to recognize women in history that have achieved great accomplishments and who have gone through the struggles of being a woman. This represented the message that we should live in an equalized world.
Marilyn Minter (Born 1948 - Shreveport, LA)
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| Marilyn Minter, Blue Holes,2007 Showcases a woman's flaws to encourage self love whereas society influences people to think perfect is beautiful |
Marilyn Minter, who currently resides in New York City is known for her works that "examine the relationship between the body, cultural anxieties about sexuality and desire, and fashion imagery" (Artsy). Her art takes in the form of "paintings, photographs, and video works" (Artsy). While at Brooklyn Museum, I also got the chance to visit her exhibit called Pretty / Dirty that showcased various forms of her artwork in which she designed to present the audience's "deepest impulses, compulsions, and fantasies" (CAMH). Walking through the exhibit there were photos that contained sexual content and fashion. In one of her paintings called Blue Poles (2007), we can see an a zoomed in picture of a women's face where we can see every detail. Through this photo, she points out how male photographers and designers in the fashion industry create what they feel is the perfect image of a woman. Through the use of editing, pimples and freckles wouldn't make it to the magazines. By showing a woman's flaws in this painting, she says that those flaws are what make us human and beautiful and women should celebrate being comfortable in their own skin. Her other work contains women participating in sexual acts in which Minter illustrates that women are in charge of their own bodies and sexuality. Through this exhibit, she empowers women to love themselves and to take charge of their lives. Women should no longer be subject the male gaze and feel pressured to conform to the standards of the beauty and fashion industry.
Barbara Kruger (Born January 26, 1945 - Newark, NJ)
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| Barbara KrugerUntitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face), 1981 Illustrates the violence the male gaze inflicts on women |
Barbara Kruger is known for her works of art that contain messages over black and white advertising photographs. Her art focuses on consumerism and critiques the societal norm that women should belong with in their gender roles. In her piece, Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face) 1981, she addresses the male gale where women have been subject to the male fantasy. Throughout history, the male gaze has been portrayed through European oil paintings to TV commercials today. Typically, we will see that the woman is looking elsewhere and the shot is focused on her from the side in a manner where she is being watched without her looking back. The act of the gaze "hitting" the side of her face can be portrayed as being a violent act and its negative affects it has on women. Through the gaze women feel that they have to be perfect because they are constantly being watched or even violated. This gaze sexualizes and objectifies women and forces them to feel imprisoned by the patriarchy. Through Kruger's art, she brings attention to how society treats women and empowers women to know their body isn't for sale.
Yoko Ono (Born February 18, 1933 - Tokyo, Japan)
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| Cut Piece, Yoko Ono, 1964 Male member of the audience aggressively cut off large piece of Yoko Ono's clothing almost exposing her breasts |
Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist and activist who's performance art has made a lasting impact on its audience. Typically, most artwork you would see would take in the form of painting, drawings, installations - all involves some sort of material object. Yoko Ono felt that she did not want her art to be restricted to those mediums so she began presenting her art through performances. One of her famous pieces "Cut Piece (1964) is a feminist art performance that invited the audience members to take turns cutting off her clothes using a pair of scissors" (The Art Story). This performance was powerful because she was in a vulnerable position and gave the audience the power to do what they please. We see that women would cut smaller pieces of clothing while males eventually started to cut larger pieces. This was prevalent through out history where men violate the female body and looks at them as an object. In this performance she is now a sexual object where people feel it's normal to degrade a woman because she is a woman. This piece addresses sexual violence inflicted on women and it brings awareness that women should be in charge of their bodies.
Lisa Yuskavage (Born May 16, 1962 - Philadelphia, PA)
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| Lisa Yuskavage, Kathy on a Pedestal, 2001 |
Lisa Yuskavage is an artist, currently residing in New York City, who is best known for her paintings of nude, curvaceous women that illustrated male fantasies from her perspective. "For the past 20 years, she has been developing her own genre of nude female figures that are mostly erotic, lavish, cartoonish, and angelic" (Art Net). Her artwork would entice the audience's imagination and she used her art to create conversation about the social identities through the use of women's bodies (Wide Walls). She enlarges women's breast and gives them pornographic qualities to depict society's fixation on on female sexuality. In her piece, Kathy on a Pedestal (2001), as it says in the title we see a nude woman on a pedestal. This piece is reminiscent of the European oil paintings of nude women who would pose for the artist. The male gaze is very present in this drawing where the women is looking away but her body is faced forward to show that she knows that her body is for the audience to watch. The fact that she's on a pedestal speaks to how the patriarchy wants to silence women, but when her body is being objectified, men look up to her to sexualize her for his pleasure. Yuskavage's art attracts many critics to her work because she's a woman portraying the male gaze in her art. I think her perspective makes an impact because it's a woman drawing a woman who is showing her body because it's her decision.
C I T A T I O N S
"Biography « Judy Chicago." Judy Chicago. N.p., n.d.
Web. 15 Apr. 2017. <http://www.judychicago.com/about/biography/>.
"Brown Foundation Gallery." Marilyn Minter:
Pretty/Dirty | Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
<http://camh.org/exhibitions/marilyn-minter-prettydirty#.WPVsYlPyut8>.
"Yoko Ono Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works." The
Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017 <http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ono-yoko.htm#synopsys_header>.
"Lisa Yuskavage." Lisa Yuskavage Biography – Lisa
Yuskavage on Artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017
<http://www.artnet.com/artists/lisa-yuskavage/biography>.
Widewalls. "Lisa Yuskavage." WideWalls. N.p., n.d. Web.
17 Apr. 2017. <http://www.widewalls.ch/artist/lisa yuskavage/>.
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