Women and Western Art

From today’s Washington Post…an article about language and how women (here politicians) are described and defined and…

What themes arose in the 60-second narratives you told and heard about “artists and patrons, identities and strategies?”

Some of the themes I heard focused on the art history canon (where do women artists belong?), “woman’s sexuality” as seen by individual female and male artists, celebrity/ies, contemporary politics, echoes/revisions of NMWA, and women artists from beyond the US and British traditions of feminist art.

Please respond to this comment with ideas for organizing tomorrow’s panel on “Contemporary Directions.” Think ahead for next Tuesday’s roundtable discussion, “What is feminist art and feminist art history? What were these in the 1970s? What are these today?”

Postscript, Nov. 13, 2007:  A link to the Washington Post article from April 2007…thanks Laura!

Robin Givhan’s recent article in the Washington Post, “Touching Up (and On) Feminist Roots.”

For October 30, think about your responses to the following questions to prepare for our discussion of the art and readings assigned.

Race Questionnaire
The following is adapted from B. Schneider, Race, An Anthology in the First Person (New York:  Crown, 1997).

1.  How was race explained to you as a child?  Was it explained to you at all?
2.  What messages did your parents communicate to you about race issues?
3.  How does this differ from the way you communicate with your with your peers about race?
4.  What are your most basic fears about race?
5.  What is your race?
6.  How important is race to your sense of self?
7.  In what ways do you organize your identity and resources around race?  How consciously does race affect your choice of where to live, shop, or go to school?
8.  How do you account for the fact that the distribution of wealth among whites, blacks, and Native Americans is nearly the same now as it was in 1866, as slavery formally came to an end?
9.  Should whites in America think of themselves as a race?
10.  How have your views about race and your own position in the racial scheme of things changed in the last ten years?
11.  How did the O.J. Simpson case affect your sense of the American racial landscape?
12.  What do you see as the dangers or positive effects of ethnocentricity, such as Eurocentricity or Afrocentricity?
13.  What does the concept of America as a melting pot mean to you?
14.  What are your hopes and fears for a multiracial America?
15.  What questions would you add to this list?

Here is the link to CultureGrrl…the blog Dr. Chew mentioned last week in her discussion of the recent events at Randolph College.

And an update from CultureGrrl.

Please respond to Kerry’s comment (first to follow) and discussion on Vigée-Lebrun.

Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, after 1782

I’ve added a few images below for consideration…  They are familiar and powerful images.

Velázquez, Fraga Philip, 1644 (Frick)

Rubens, Triumph of Victory, ca. 1614 (Kassel)

Rubens, Allegory of War, 1637-38 (Florence, Pitti)

Please read Dana’s comment (first comment here) before discussing in a following comment your self-portrait. Images and texts are welcome.  In addition to Dana’s questions, I ask that you tell us how large your self-portrait is.

Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils…, 1785

“Approximately half of the forty women artists discussed in this book survive only as a name on a printed page.” (F. Jacobs, Defining the Renaissance Virtuosa…, 1997/1999, 1)

How can we write (or study) a history of works that no longer exist, and likely haven’t existed for centuries?

Why have Sofonisba Anguissola’s and Lavinia Fontana’s works survived in greater number than the work of other women artists, such as Irene di Spilimbergo?

Exactly what are the critical differences between male and female artists identified by writers in the early modern period?

Exercise:

Define the terms as we use them today.

Define the terms as used by Jacobs;  consider the visual and literary sources used by Jacobs.

Present visual examples from Jacobs that help explain the terms.

Present visual examples other than those from Jacobs.

The terms:

virtuosa/virtuoso

creativity

melancholia

la donnesca mano

grazia

donna donnesco

invenzione

As you read W. and M. Wittkower on Gentileschi, consider the language the authors use to describe Gentileschi, her personality, career, attitude(s), art, and the “case of seduction.” How do they describe Agostino Tassi and his actions? How does the “legend” of Gentileschi compare with Vasari’s account of Properzia dei Rossi?

One theme we see here is how biography — particularly a woman’s sexuality — is used to interpret the work of women artists. This has been the case with Gentileschi since 1612, at least.

Look carefully at the series of paintings Gentileschi produces on the subject of Judith and Holofernes. Among the many issues for us to discuss (and there are many) is clothing. How are Judith and the woman who accompanies her dressed? What does this clothing indicate, and how would it have been understood by Gentileschi’s contemporaries?

For the narrative of Susanna and the Elders, please read the Book of Susanna; for Judith and Holofernes, read the Book of Judith, chapters 10 through 13. Both are available at this link to the Bible.

Two points that came out in our discussion of clothing are: social restrictions imposed on men and women regarding the clothing and accessories they wore (sumptuary laws), and the bodily restrictions clothing imposed on the wearer.

Sumptuary laws made it possible to see/recognize social hierarchies, thus maintaining the stratification of social classes. These laws also stated society’s values; if early modern laws are quoting passages from the Bible or Early Christian writers, the laws are an attempt to renew or restore society’s morals and values. And, as Laura pointed out, clothing was a tangible thing that could be regulated; I think Laura stated that these laws might be seen as an expression of society’s “frustration.”

An interesting site:  The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada.