week 4 Woman in art
Angelica Hesitating between Music and Painting, ca. 1765
In this week's reading we read Linda Nochlin's Hypothesis "Why Have There Been no Great Female Artists?". Which I feel like is a fair question but that brings up a question itself. What is a great artist, I mean the picture above painted by Angelica Kauffman, in my eyes is a great piece and she is a great artist to make it. But she is seen has great say, Leonardo DaVinci and say the Mona Lisa. Of course, some of it is because of her gender. According to Linda Nochlin, she states," They run from "scientifically" proven demonstrations of the inability of human beings with wombs rather than penises to create anything significant, to relatively open-minded wonderment that women, despite so many years of near equality." Of course, there is some truth to this statement. In the past, and sometimes even today women are seen and written has lesser than men, an example of this would be voting. Of course, this is an extreme example of it, but it still relates to the current issue even if just a little. This is why I feel like art needs to be look at more, objectively when we are trying to call something beautiful but that will be impossible has the concept of beauty is subjective. So how do we solve this, I say look at it from a different perspective. According to Angelica Kauffman, "They propose the existence of a distinctive and recognizable feminine style, differing in both formal and expressive qualities from that of men artists and posited on the unique character of women's situation and experience." If you were to look at the image above to any male artist from the same time period, there will be a suble difference between the two artists. Of course, each artist has their own style, when it comes to art, ways they draw lines, show depth, or even just the medium they use.
When it comes to art the only thing that should matter is the piece itself. Not who or even what drew the piece, (Except ai but that's a whole other situation) Just what the art looks like. I also believe multiple people should look at an art piece not just one, to decide if a piece is beautiful or not. Say something similar to 4 out of 6 critics say this piece is beautiful. I also believe these ideals should be brought into everyday life, it doesn't matter if it's a Female or male mechanic all that matters is did they fix your car.
Citations
Nochlin, L. (2020, October 20). From 1971: Why have there been no great women artists?. ARTnews.com. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-4201/
Reiley, you brought up a great point about how we need to look at art more as a society and collectively recognize these women that were just as, if not more, talented as the men. Unfortunately I do not believe there is a way to do this with any sort of haste in today's society, but I fully agree with your stance on the matter.
ReplyDeleteEven if museums and other art programs and collectively pushed out more artworks made by early women painters, someone, somewhere in the back of the crowd, will scream that the museums are pushing an agenda. I think at this moment it would be more important to do everything we can to educate those people the difference between introducing parts of our culture that need to be and should be more well known and common and actually pushing something that would be detrimental to society as a whole.
Hi Reiley,
ReplyDeleteI am starting to rethink my usage of the word "great". Thank you for your thought-provoking discussion about our reading. Here are a few comments about my perspective regarding to your last paragraph:
I think knowing about the artist is important and should be looked at alongside their artwork. Sometimes art is conceptual, and the viewer may not be able to grasp direct meanings without certain background information. Not to say that it is always necessary or possible to garner meaning, but most likely having information about an artist or any historical background is helpful. I agree with what you are saying overall, but I don't think we should disregard who the artist is while looking at their work. As long as we are not using an artist's identity to discriminate against them then there shouldn't be an issue. Having that context may help with seeing the bigger picture.