Once again my friend LT has sent me a fantastic link that's led to a blog entry. (I think she's bucking to be co-editor). Below is an interesting video of images of female faces from centuries of Western Art. The faces morph into each other, accompanied by cello music. Kind of haunting. It begins early on with Renaissance paintings then moves on to more modern paintings.
I would be very curious to hear comments from my friend MK, who has just started Grad school and is currently reading essays on feminism and art. What does this video say about the concept of women and beauty? What are your thoughts, dear readers? If Paris Hilton were living in the 1500's in Germany, the daughter of a rich bugermeister, would she likely be the subject of a painting?
1 comment:
I actually enjoyed the video! I thought it was creative and well-done. I am curious
if a man or woman made the video. Women have been the subject of art since the
beginning of time, and 90% of the artists portraying them have been men. It was
fun to see the evolution of the art periods throughout the video, from the cult
of Madonna to Cubism. I am also curious why it is just Western art that was portrayed.
Why not Middle Eastern or Asian? Also, it's hard to interpret the video and
its contents as a whole without seeing the entire paintings themselves. In general,
the portrayal of women is always either pure and holy, like from the Bible, or seductive
and alluring, as with some of the classics of Degas. She is also destroyed on canvas
by men fearful of the power of women. To be limited to these three personnas is
an injustice, not only to women, but men and the art world as a whole. Why do we
not see any nude men lying around with their flacid penis's hanging out? Why
are they always portrayed as doing "something important and active" like
writing, hunting or riding a horse into battle?...Just food for thought...
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