Women and Art

[Tom47]

Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century and to top that off I find her works to be beautiful.  She was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  Starting in 1905 she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  At the age of 28 she began work on a number of pure abstractions and was among the earliest artists to do so.  Then in the 1920s she began to move away from pure abstractions, but her painting still kept the general feel of that form.  She did this with her pictures of flowers by zooming into her subject to show it as it is not normally seen and thereby made for herself a new motif.  For example “Red Canna” (1924), here https://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/images/paintings/red-canna.jpg, is a close up that initially appears as an abstraction.  In this the artist took a subject - a flower - which in many cases can be seen as passive subjects, beautiful, but not moving then made it dynamic, full of motion as a fire.  The reds, oranges, yellows and even blues play off each other wonderfully.

When in New York City, Georgia O’Keeffe did urban paintings such as “Radiator Building, Night, New York” (1927) and “New York City With Moon” (1925).  In 1929, she visited New Mexico and eventually moved there in 1949.  Her fascination with the New Mexico landscape gave her a new direction in regard to subject matter.  She does not seem to have done many figurative paintings.  Here is a somewhat long video (28 minutes), showing a variety of subjects, of 294 of the artist's works with nice music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJuclT7lnw.  

Here is a quote by Georgia O'Keeffe that I found: “I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore.”  What do people think of that?  

Tom,

[Tom47]

Female artists and the Male Nude:

 

Go into an Art Museum or Art Gallery and most likely most of the works you will see have been done by male artists and if there are any nudes most of them will be females depicted by male artists.  In 1989 the “Guerrilla Girls,” an anonymous group of female artists put out a poster saying: 

“Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?  Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.”  

Because of this many people’s idea of a nude maybe that it is of a woman and that it was made by a man.  While most nude artworks are produced by men, if for no other reason as there have been many more professional male artists, female artists have also depicted nudes and even male nudes.  As I am interested in female artists and in sex or gender role reversal I am particularly interested in examples of women artists depicting the male nude and there are quite a number of these, not just in modern times, but going back into history.

An early example is by the artist Michaelina Wautier (b. 1604 in Mons Belgium).  It is her Triumph of Bacchus, completed before 1659.  She actually depicted herself, on the far right of the painting as a bacchante, the only figure looking out at the viewer.  

 

Giulia Lama was born in Venice on October 1, 1681 and is the first woman artist that is definitely known to have studied from nude male models as examples of her studies have been found.  Here is one of them: Nudo Maschile: https://www.wikiart.org/en/giulia-lama/nudo-maschile

Angelica Kauffmann (b. October 30, 1741 in Chur, Switzerland) produced a number of paintings depicting the nude Amor, Eros, Cupid.  This painting Amor and Psyche (1792) depicts a scene from the story of the same name.  Psyche is the protagonist in the story and is generally active as she has to complete a number of trials, but in this particular scene as part of one of her trials she had been put to sleep by a spell.  “Amor and Psyche” `(1792)

Here is a chalk study by Angelique Mongez (b. May 1, 1775 in Charenton-le-Pont, France) for her painting Theseus and Pirithous, Clearing the Earth of Brigands, Deliver Two Women from the Hands of  their Abductors (1806).  This is an image full of action.  What interests me in particular is that the two good guys, Theseus and Pirithous, are nude and the bad guys are clothed. From my readings Theseus and Pirithous weren’t always the good guys, but in this painting they are.       

 

The sculptor Harriet Hosmer was born on October 9, 1830 in Watertown, Massachusetts.  She eventually went to live and work in Rome, Italy.  Here is an image of her: A Sleeping Faun (1867).  

 

Evelyn De Morgan (b. 1855 London) painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style.  Here is her painting Phosphorus and Hesperus (1882).  Phosphorus represents the morning star and Hesperus the evening star.  Since they are both the planet Venus the artist painted them together with one asleep and the other awake holding a torch as they are never in the sky together.. 

 

The French painter Suzanne Valadon was born in Bessines-sur-Gartempe on September 23, 1865 to a poor single mother.  She was brought to Paris, at five years of age, by her mother.  Starting at age 15 she worked as a circus performer until an accident put an end to that career.  Also at that age she started to pose for many of the artists in Paris at that time and her image can been seen in many of their paintings.  Suzanne was always artistic even as a child and her modeling helped her learn to paint and draw.  During her lifetime she produced over 400 paintings.  Her 1914 painting Casting the Net (1914) is an interesting triple image of a nude male.  

 

Historically women have been discouraged and even forbidden from studying from the nude.  This is for two reasons.  In the past there was a hierarchy of subjects in art.  At the top were the historical and mythological subjects, many of which contained nude figures and at the bottom were Still Lifes.  It is felt that studying from the nude is important for an artist not only to know what the nude looks like, but also to better depict a clothed figure.  Keeping female artists from studying from the nude meant they were less likely to compete with the male artist in regard to the higher forms of figurative and historical art.  The second reason is basically the “Double Standard '' where it was felt that females needed to be protected from seeing the nude, as it is felt that children now need to be, but men didn’t need any such protection.  It wasn’t that female artists agreed with this, during the 19th century female artists partitioned for the right to attend classes with nude models and as we have seen there were many female artists who did depict the nude.

Tom,

[Mashinka]

The French film 'Lady on Fire' refers to this problem of women denied access to life classes with naked men.  Towards the end of the film the female artist exhibits a painting with both male and female figures, but she claims the painting was by her father.

Sometimes prudishness worked the other way with Victorian wives forbidding painter husbands to use a female model.

[Tom47]

Mashinka, I do not know of a film entitled “Lady on Fire,” but I do know of the French film “A Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” directed and written by Céline Sciamma, although I have not seen it, I have seen a clip from the film with the following dialog:

Woman: Do you paint nude models too?

Artist: Women, Yes. 

Woman: Why not men? 

Artist: I’m not allowed to. 

Woman: Why not? 

Artist: Because I’m a woman.

Woman: Is it a matter of modesty?

Artist: It’s mostly to prevent us from doing great art, without any notion of male anatomy the major subjects escape us. 

Woman: How do you manage?

Artist: I do it in secret. 

I have seen two other films by Céline Sciamma and after seeing the trailer I plan to see “A Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”  As to “Victorian wives” I never thought about that before and while it was the case that some female art students had some access to life classes (nude models) they were more likely to be discouraged or forbidden to attend such classes than male art students.  

Tom,

[Mashinka]

So sorry, yes it was Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a reference to a skirt catching fire from a beach bonfire.

I believe it was Walter Crane who had a notoriously prudish wife.

 

 

[Tom47]

That’s ok Mashinka, I’m glad you posted.  It allowed me to post about that movie.

Tom,

[Tom47]

The artist Judy Chicago was born Judy Cohen, in Chicago on July 20, 1939.  Much of her art focuses on feminism and one of her most impressive works is The Diner Party (1974 - 1979) now permanently on view in the Brooklyn Museum.  This work consists of 39 dinner place settings, one each for 39 mythical and historical women, on a triangular table with an open space, called the Heritage Floor in the middle.  Sitting on each place setting is a 14 inch china plate decorated so as to represent the woman for whom it is set.  The plates are then set on runners which are also decorated.  Here is a list of the 39 women:      

Judy Chicago the dinner party

Side One                                                 Side Two                                                            Side Three

Primordial Goddess                            Marcella                                                            Anne Hutchinson

Fertile Goddess                                    Saint Bridget                                                   Sacajawea

Ishtar                                                      Theodora                                                         Caroline Herschel

Kali                                                          Hrosvitha                                                         Mary Wollstonecraft

Snake Goddess                                    Trotula                                                              Sojourner Truth

Sophia                                                    Eleanor of Aquitaine                                     Susan B. Anthony

Amazon                                                 Hildegarde of Bingen                                    Elizabeth Blackwell

Hatshepsut                                          Petronilla de Meath                                      Emily Dickinson

Judith                                                    Christine de Pisan                                          Ethel Smyth

Sappho                                                 Isabella d’Este                                                 Margaret Sanger

Aspasia                                                Elizabeth R.                                                       Natalie Barney

Boadaceia                                           Artemisia Gentileschi                                    Virginia Woolf

Hypatia                                                Anna van Schurman                                      Georgia O'Keeffe

In addition to these 39 women, there are signatures of 999 other women on the Heritage Floor.    

Images of each of the plates can be found here and by clicking on an image one is brought to a short description of the woman so honored, as well as to a list of related women from the Heritage Floor.  Clicking on those names will provide information on them as well: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings.

I found all of the women noted here to be interesting, particularly the Primordial Goddess and the Fertile Goddess in that I am intrigued by the possibility that gods/goddesses were originally represented as being female.  For example figurines such as The Venus of Willendorf may have been a depiction of such a creator god/goddess.  It makes sense to me that a creator god/goddess would be represented as female in that females do create life in a way that males do not.  Also of interest are the Amazons.  Recently discovered archaeological evidence shows there were female warriors in the area that the Greeks maintained the Amazons lived in - north of the Black Sea.  The people who lived there, both women and men - rode horses and used bows and arrows.  Female warriors riding horses and using bows and arrows would physically be the equal of male warriors.   Also, these people appear to be the first to wear trousers, which Greek illustrations show the Amazons as wearing.   

Other projects by Judy Chicago include the Birth Project (1980 to 1985), the Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985 to1993) and Jewish Themes.

Tom,

[Mashinka]

Last week I visited the Villa Borghese Gallery in Rome and was delighted that one of the rooms was dominated by a huge canvas by Lavinia Fontana.  Female artists are rarely so prominently displayed.

https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/opere/minerva-dressing/

 

[Tom47]

Mashinka, thank you for your contribution.  I hope you had a good time in Rome, I see from your profile that you are from London.  You are correct female artists are rarely so prominently displayed, it is always nice to see when they are.

Tom,  

[Tom47]

This post is about eight female artists who I feel are not very well known, but who are interesting.

Maria Siblylla Merian, born in Frankfurt, Germany on April 2, 1647, was an artist, a scientist and an explorer.  At age 13 she started studying silkworms and other caterpillars and how they turned into butterflies.  She published a number of books of engravings including New Book of Flowers in 1675 and The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food 1677.  Starting in 1699 she traveled to South America with her daughter to study.  Two years later, after returning home, Maria Merian prepared 60 copperplate engravings which were published in a book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium in 1705.  Here is a 2 ½ minute video of her work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPNeSa1hP0.

Once I was in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City looking for art done by female artists (there are very few) when I came upon the painting shown below entitled The Horse Fair.  I was intrigued by it, but thought that it was not done by a woman.  Looking at the picture’s information I was pleasantly surprised that it was indeed painted by a woman and the woman was Rosa Bonheur.  Born in Bordeaux, France in 1822 Rosa Bonheur, painted The Horse Fair between 1852 and 1855.  In preparing this picture the artist had to get official police permission to wear men’s clothing.  She specialized in the depiction of animals.  Here is a 4 minute long video showing Rosa Bonheur’s paintings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Mah5NdvJA,

 

The artist Emily Mary Osborn, born in Essex, England in 1834, was a supporter of the Women’s rights movement.  Of particular interest is the artist’s 1857 painting Nameless and Friendless.  See here for a 4 minute video dealing with that work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXR7_7JmT3g.  Emily Osborn became a member of the “Society of Female Artists” formed in 1857, which was dedicated to helping female artists exhibit and sell their works.  Imagine, at least 164 years ago women were banding together to get more works by women artists exhibited and still museums and galleries now are falling behind in that regard.

Camille Claudel was born in Fere-en-Tardenois, France, northeast of Paris, on November 8, 1864.  She showed an early talent for sculpture and when older studied at the Académie Colarossi, in Paris, where female artists were able to study from the male nude, while at the same time the official École des Beaux-Arts didn’t even admit female artists.  The following is a link to a 3 ½ minute video of the artist’s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqMt80rmbA.

The illustrator, Virginia Frances Sterrett, was born in Chicago on January 1, 1900.  While still a teenager she received a scholarship to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, then obtained employment producing pictures for advertisements.  At the age of 19 she was hired to illustrate a book of Old French Fairy Tales by Sophie Compesse de Segur (b. 1788).  Two years later she illustrated the book Tanglewood Tales and later illustrated a book of stories from the Arabian Nights.  I like her drawings very much.  She has a delightful way of combining curves and straight lines.  Here is a 3 minute video of her illustrations with music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9nGUgilvI.

Joyce Ballantyne was a pin-up illustrator, born in Norfolk, Nebraska in 1918.  Some consider the era of the pin-up to have started in the 1890s and while most were produced by male artists there were a number of female artists.  In regard to the art form Joyce Ballantyne said “The trick is to make a pinup flirtatious.  But you don’t go dirty.  You want the girl to look a little like your sister, or maybe your girlfriend, or just the girl next door.  She’s a nice girl, she’s innocent, but maybe she got caught in an awkward situation that’s a little sexy.”  She also did advertisement illustrations and perhaps her most famous was the Coppertone ad with the puppy pulling the back of a little girl's swimsuit down.  By the way, the model for that was the artist’s daughter.  This link is to a 3 ½ minute video of Joyce Ballantyne’s pin-up works.  Near the end in the calendar images there is a male pin-up for April: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7U73BCmkbo.

Margaret Keane was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 1827 as Peggy Doris Hawkins and was the subject of the 2014 film Big Eyes starring Amy Adams.  She started painting faces with large eyes at a young age.  Among her earliest paintings were those of angels with big eyes and floppy wings, which were then shown at her church.  Later in life actors such as Joan Crawford and Natalie Wood commissioned her to do their portraits.  While some art critics did not think highly of her work, they were nonetheless popular and good art is in the eye of the beholder.  Here is a 3 ½ minute long video of her paintings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ63MIEZnMA.

The painter Laurie Cooper was born in Philadelphia and has earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arts and her Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.  She produces realistic art, many being portraits and mainly uses pastel and charcoal in her work.  Laurie Cooper appears to be a young artist and I have not been able to find very much more information about her life.  Here is a 3 ½ minute video showing her images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q27cm5lsqU8. 

Tom,

[Tom47]

I found a very nice video of 40 Self-Portraits by Women Painters.  Not only does it show the work of these female artists, with nice music, but as it is in chronological order it is an interesting little timeline of art from the 16th century to the present.  See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBhQFKcrvtw.

Tom,

[Tom47]

This article from the Smithsonian magazine is entitled “Ancient Women Artists May Be Responsible for Most Cave Art - Previously most researchers assumed that the people behind these mysterious artworks must have been men, but they were wrong.”  Rachel Nuwer, the author of the article, goes on to note that “Since cave art often depicts game species, a subject near and dear to hunters, most researchers have assumed that the people behind this mysterious artwork must have been male. But new research suggests that’s not right: when scientists looked closely at a sample of hand stencils, a common motif in cave art, they concluded that about three-quarters were actually drawn by women.”  See here for the article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-women-artists-may-be-responsible-for-most-cave-art-1094929/.  In the article it is noted that a modern sample was 60 percent accurate, which is better than guesswork and I don’t know if it can be assumed that tens of thousands of years ago a teenage boy’s two favorite topics were big powerful animals and naked ladies.  Girls seem to be more interested in riding horses than boys are and horses are big powerful animals and if we found pictures of naked gentlemen would it make sense that they were made by girls because naked gentlemen are one of teenage girl’s two favorite topics?  It seems to me that people tend to make arguments that support what they are used to and we are used to there being more male than female artists in museums and galleries.

Not quite as old as the oldest cave art is the “Venus of Willendorf” (see here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/A_female_Paleolithic_figurine%2C_Venus_of_Willendorf_Wellcome_M0000440.jpg) dated 24,000 to 22,000 BCE.  It is not known whether this statuette or 40 similar ones, mostly of female figures, was produced by a female or male artist or even why they were produced.  That is, with current knowledge they were just as likely to have been done by a female artist than by a male artist.  Just because we are currently more familiar with male professional artists doesn’t mean Venus was created by a male.  This is an important point.  A possible reason given for its creation was that it was seen as a fertility or mother goddess.  The features of the figure emphasize reproduction and child care.  In my opinion in a culture where there is no bias for male or female leadership, unlike our own, people would be more likely to imagine a creator “god” as being female, as a mother “god” instead of a father “god,” as women are more obviously creators of life and that the members of earlier cultures may not have fully understood the role males play in reproduction.  

Here is a link to a Roman fresco of a woman painting a statue of Priapus from the Casa del Chirurgo [House of the Surgeon] in Pompeii.  What is most interesting about this is that it depicts a female artist at work and is clear evidence that there were women artists at the time of Pompeii’s destruction (79 CE).  See here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Pompeii_-_Casa_del_Chirurgo_-_Paintress_-_MAN.jpg.   In myth Priapus was a minor Greek fertility god and an apotropaic symbol meaning “supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck,” so in a way the female artist is painting a good luck charm.  Considering how he is normally (always?) depicted, it's not likely that his image would be found in a modern house, but was quite common in Pompeii.

Next is a detail from a red figure kalpis (water jar) showing a female artist applying decoration to the handles of a volute krater, dated 470 to 450 BCE.  Clicking on the arrow to the left will show more of the water jar.  This shows the existence of women artists, at least in the decoration of pottery, at that time.  See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69716881@N02/37550586230/in/photostream/.

This is a list of eight female artists from between the 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE.  As the information on these artists is not always certain I feel it is better that one reads from the web pages listed at the bottom instead of me rewriting in my own words.  

Aristarete (dates unknown)

Timarete (or Tamaris) (5th century BCE)

Iaia of Cyzicus (1st century BCE)

Eirene (1st century CE)

Information on these women can be found here: https://greekamericangirl.com/four-ancient-greek-female-artists-you-never-knew-existed-because-they-never-taught-you-eirene-timarete-aristarete-iaia/

Irene Archos, the author of the web page reframed the question “‘Why haven’t there been more great women artists throughout Western history?” into ‘Why haven’t more women been considered great artists throughout Western history?’” 

Four other female artists from this time are:

Kora (or Callirhoe) of Sicyon (650 BCE)

Helena of Egypt (4th century BCE)

Anaxandra (2nd century BCE)

Olympia known by name only

Information on them can be found here: https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/176297407861/women-artists-in-the-classical-mediterranean.   

Tom,

[Tom47]

This post deals with four rather unique female photographers.

The first is Julia Margaret Cameron who was born in Kolkata, India on June 11 1815.  She spent portions of her life in India, France and England.  Her career as a photographer started on Christmas 1863 (age 48) when she received a camera as a present from her daughter.  Within 3 years she started to exhibit her work around England and in Paris and the Netherlands and went on to sell her photographs.  As can be seen in the accompanying video (7 minutes) for the most part the artist’s photographs had a delicate, fanciful nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqnVLwRagbs. 

The photographer Dorothea Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895.  Growing into adulthood she studied photography for a short period at Columbia University and then moved to San Francisco.  It was during the depression of the 1930s and while she was working for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration under the Federal Department of Agriculture that the artist made some of her most moving images.  On top of the financial crisis was another disaster which consisted of the great sand storms that plagued the center part of the United States, an area then called the Dust Bowl and which forced many to migrate to other parts of the nation.  Perhaps the best known of Dorothea’s photographs is her “Destitute peapickers in California a 32 years old mother of seven children” or as it is better known “Migrant Mother.”  (Below)

Florence Owens Thompson (age 32 at the time) was the actual mother in this photograph.  It was taken in the early part of 1936.  

In February of 1942 Executive Order 9066 allowed for the internment of approximately 110,000 American citizens (approximately two-thirds) and residents of the United States who were of Japanese descent.  Many of Dorothea Lange’s photographs are of these internees.  

Here is a video (10 minutes long) showing Dorothea’s Lange's photographs, including both those taken during the depression and dust bowl as well as those taken of the interned Japanese-Americans.  Not only are her photographs a historical record of a disastrous period in history, but are, from an artistic point of view great studies of faces.  A photograph of a woman sitting on top of an automobile near the beginning of the video is of Dorothea’s Lange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw1AZkvdC8k.

This is a quote by the photographer:

“The people who are garrulous and wear their heart on their sleeve and tell you everything, that’s one kind of person, but the fellow who’s hiding behind a tree and hoping you don’t see him is the fellow that you’d better find out why.”

To me Dorothea Lange took photographs of the people who were “hiding behind a tree.”  

The next two photographers are women who took photographs of the nude.  I see them as being artistic representations.  At times the nude, both the male and female nudes have been important subjects in the arts.  There is no reason for female artists to be excluded from this form of expression, whether it is in the field of painting, sculpture or photography.

The first such photographer is Jennette Williams, (b. December 17, 1952 in Forest Hills, NY).  Her work The Bathers, which consists of photographs of nude or semi-nude women in Hungarian and Turkish bath houses, is in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is the 2008 winner of the Honickman First Book Prize in Photography.  The photographs of The Bathers were done in the platinum printing process.  See here for a 4 ½ minute video of the artist Jennette Williams talking about her project along with Mary Ellen Mark, who judged the First Book competition.  Also shown are photographs of nude and semi-women from the project.  At one point in the video the photographer says “The Bathers questions what makes for beauty in women.”  And I feel that this is one of the importances of the work:  https://vimeo.com/31513663 and here is a video which includes more of the photographs from The Bathers (4 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC9fgyoiLDM. 

The second of the two women photographing the nude is Dianora Niccolini who was born in Florence, Italy, in October 1936.  Her book Naked Splendor appears to be primarily about the male nude.  She came to the United States with her family after the Second World War.  In a web article entitled "My Photo History" (http://www.dianoraniccolini.com/history.html) Dianora Niccolini clarifies why she has specialized in the male nude for over a quarter of a century.  The following quotes illustrate the three reasons she has identified:

“In photographing gorgeous naked men. I can safely look at young (21+) handsome naked hunks without getting involved . . . It is much more acceptable to be a voyer (sic) with a camera than without it!”

“Growing up in Florence (Italy), gave me a very different perspective on nudes than most Americans.  The streets of Florence are filled with statues of both naked men, women and even children (as cherubins etc.)  The museums house most of the great art of the renaissance and Michaelangelo’s work was my favorite! I loved the statues of men with their powerful muscular bodies.  It is no wonder, then, that I chose and still choose to photograph muscular men in their prime.  I love to make them look like statues.”

“My third reason is political. I couldn’t believe that exhibiting photographs of the male nude was a taboo.  This was America, after all, the land of the free!!  The sexual revolution had already happened.  So what was the problem????  It was HOMOPHOBIA!!!  I became determined to bring about change.”

In this 9 minute long video Dianora Niccolini talks about her book Naked Splendor.  During this she shows photographs from the book, most of which are of the male nude and also recites the poetry printed alongside the pictures:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_kCpgwuMD4.

Here is a series of photographs taken by Dianora Niccolini.  They are all of nude males similar to the ones from the book “Naked Splendor.”  Clicking on the right arrow just under the artist’s name advances the picture to the next page.  There are 12 pages in total:  http://www.thefrasergallery.com/artists/DianoraNiccolini-artwork1.html.

Tom,