Despite the institutional and societal limitations women artists have faced, portrait art has long been regarded as a feminine preoccupation. Since ancient times, female artists have excelled in portraiture. While male portrait artists are more celebrated, women seem to excel in this over other genres of art. This post was born after I read two essays: Linda Nochlin’s Why Have There…
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Behind the Movement: The Women of Surrealism
My latest art obsession is Surrealism, especially the female artists involved with the movement. Several courses I took last semester were about modern art, and I finally started paying attention to Surrealism, which I’d previously written off, having only knowing its male participants and their infamous sexism. Surrealism was certainly rooted in a chauvinistic and phallocentric narrative, but many women…
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Female Nudes and The Male Gaze
The artistic convention of the nude has been around since ancient times, and its sexist undertones have always accompanied it. The naked female body has long been a source of pleasure to the male eye. It is commodified and assigned value through its sexual attractiveness to the male eye. The conventions of nudes have shifted to please male audiences throughout…
