The Representation of the Female Form in Art.
Since humanity evolved women have been worshipped, adored, cherished and admired whilst simultaneously have been defamed, castigated, condemned, abused, maligned, raped and murdered as can be seen through the history of art.
How women are portrayed in art tells much about the status and roles of women in society and the place where men wanted them.
Since prehistoric times woman have been portrayed in art, giving an impression of the perception the artist and the culture they lived in, had of women.
The earliest etchings and figures strongly relate around one thing. The female as the life giver, fertility and childbirth.
Although there is the impression that in these times women were seen as purely wives and mothers keeping the house (cave?) tidy.
Some would argue women were not portrayed as anything less than equal in art. The concept of fertility and childbirth was very important and raised women to a level of great spiritual importance and power amongst primitive society.
Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville is a modern figurative artist who through her work raises questions relating to worlds perception of genders, focusing on the blurring of the lines of gender in women; in the mind sets of the changing perceptions men have of women as well as the perception women have of them selves in a where the power of women is only recent.
She states she’s searching to create the sense of the idea of a ‘floating gender’ that is not fixed where sex doesn’t define who category a subject falls into.
This is her controversial painting of a transvestite with a womanly figure, breast but male genitals. She says this piece is intended to cause ambiguity on all levels. Is it a woman who is like a man or a man who is like a woman or both or neither? The painting is from a low angel supposedly to impose a masculine domination whilst she lays femininely unprotected on the floor.
DAMIEN HURST
Very modern art such as Damien Hursts “ The Virgin Mother”The Virgin
How women are portrayed in art tells much about the status and roles of women in society and the place where men wanted them.
Since prehistoric times woman have been portrayed in art, giving an impression of the perception the artist and the culture they lived in, had of women.
The earliest etchings and figures strongly relate around one thing. The female as the life giver, fertility and childbirth.
Although there is the impression that in these times women were seen as purely wives and mothers keeping the house (cave?) tidy.
Some would argue women were not portrayed as anything less than equal in art. The concept of fertility and childbirth was very important and raised women to a level of great spiritual importance and power amongst primitive society.
Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville is a modern figurative artist who through her work raises questions relating to worlds perception of genders, focusing on the blurring of the lines of gender in women; in the mind sets of the changing perceptions men have of women as well as the perception women have of them selves in a where the power of women is only recent.
She states she’s searching to create the sense of the idea of a ‘floating gender’ that is not fixed where sex doesn’t define who category a subject falls into.
This is her controversial painting of a transvestite with a womanly figure, breast but male genitals. She says this piece is intended to cause ambiguity on all levels. Is it a woman who is like a man or a man who is like a woman or both or neither? The painting is from a low angel supposedly to impose a masculine domination whilst she lays femininely unprotected on the floor.
DAMIEN HURST
Very modern art such as Damien Hursts “ The Virgin Mother”The Virgin