Woman are not objects, We have Power!

 By: Leslie Fernandez

Throughout the course of this semester we have explore many women artist who express paintings based on a political issues, societal messages, and other messages they are trying to get across. In this matter, I would like too focus on women artist that would focus on emotions, sex, class and power women had to confront. Women expressed strong feelings in the their paintings especially those women who dealt with the conflict of gender. The conflict referring towards too how women were treated less than men, women that experienced pain with their loved one, and expressed paintings that showed how women were becoming more than just a house wife.

In the Guerilla Girls book this poster, The Advantages Of Being A Woman Artist, expresses the idea of what women artist would go through. The Guerilla Girls restate questions like, “ Why haven’t more women been considered great artists throughout Western history” (GG 7). Women in general were nothing compared to a man, even if a women’s art work was amazing the male would get the most credit than a female.

Portia Wounding her Thigh, 1664 

There were women artist that showed how powerful woman can be for example, Elisabeta Sirani’s painting Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664. It demonstrates how Sirani wanted to show how woman had strength. “Sirani chose the moment Portia wounded herself to test her strength of character before asking Brutus to confide in her” (Chadwick 101). She challenges the male gaze: delicate, perfect, even lifeless women. In this painting women are presented as a “defect” of nature.  As well as showing that women can be just as strong and brave as men, showing no sign of pain or disgust.  She proves that Portia is worthy of political trust and separates herself from the rest gossip girls and betrays their sex by talk. 

Susanna and the Elder, 1555-60

Susanna and the Elders, 1610

Another artist that demonstrates the traits of a woman having power and pulling away from the male gaze is Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610. In this painting Artemisia, “ depicts the biblical story of Susanna, a virtuous young wife sexually harassed by the elders of her community” (Parker 1). Rather than showing Susanna as an available women or flirtatious such as how Tintoretto painted Susanna and the Elders, 1555-60. Artemisia takes the female and portrays Susanna has frightened, repulsed by their demands, and vulnerable. Unlike Tintoretto version , it “ points to the theme as reinforcing social ideologigies of masculine dominance and female subordination” ( Chadwick 108). Susanna in this painting embraces her availability, an object fir the male gaze using the mirrors venity meaning it is okay to look since she is looking at herself taking a bath in the open and the elders approach and blend in. 

There is also Frida Kahlo who depicts her painting by showing her the pain she experienced in her paintings. During her lifetime, she made at least 200 painting, drawings and sketches that related towards her experiences in life. For example, one of her famous works is , The Broken Column. This painting has so much significance to her physical and emotional pain she experience. The aspect of the column and nails signify the pain she went through and as for the larger nail on the left breast, it represents the emotional pain Diego put her through. This painting shows how broken and torn she is among her life experiences of physical and emotional pain. This comes to show how during the 20th century, the movement of surrealism began to grow amongst artist who used images to represent a dream or unconscious thought. Chadwick states how surrealism has, ""haunting complexity and narrative quality disturbing in its ambiguity"(289). Frida is a powerful and strong women to me, not only because she expressed her pain but because she showed in her painting how much love she had for her husband and how important it would be if she had the chance to carry a child. Its inspiring to see in a painting how important it is to value someone who love and cares for you and how as a woman being able to have a child is a gift. 

Lilly Martin Spencer
Born 1822, Exeter, England
Died 1902, New York, New York
War Spirit at Home, 1866
Oil on canvas
Purchase 1944
Wallace M. Scudder Bequest Fund
44.177

Than there was a woman like Lilly Martin Spencer (born November 26, 1822, Exeter, England—died May 22, 1902, New York, New York, U.S.), "American painter who created enormously popular genre paintings, illustrations, and portraits " (" Lilly Martin Spencer, Britannica).This painting, War spirit at Home, 1666 which is also found in the Newark Museum, Angels & Tomboys, Girlhood in 19^th Century American Art. Spencer was one of the first artists to deal with women's issues She demonstrates her this painting on how woman were before when their husbands were at war The painting shows how a woman is simply reading, “ newspaper announcing Grants victory at Vicksburg, a turning point in the Civil War”(Newark 1). In this painting there is the sense of the woman being powerless, struggling to hold the baby and the kids marching as if there were in a parade. The war brought suffering to the woman and made them reflect on the deaths caused by the war. “This painting, rather than being a celebration of the Union victory, is a scathing denunciation of war and perhaps a commentary on male values” (Newark 1).

Lastly, woman artist Emily Osborn does a painting named, Nameless and Friendless, 1857 which depicts a young woman accompanied by a boy entering an art dealer's shop with a painting and a portfolio of prints or drawings. The painting is carefully structured to emphasize the commodification of women in the art trade and the isolation and helpless of the single woman in Patriarchal society. The dealer studies the painting with barely disguised contempt and the other male figures focus their gaze on the woman. The message in this painting is clear on how women have no place in the commerce of art and how they belong to the world of art subjects or purveyors. 

These artist each has an amazing talents on how they depict a story in their paintings, each of these woman named all connect in the sense of how they show what woman had to go through in order to be noticed. Being a woman was not easy, man were allowed to step all over woman and not care. Learning and combining these five artist help not only me as a young woman but for others to see that artist show how us woman have power and show our strength, have the power to turn away form the male gaze, have the power to express our pain , and lastly give the audience a story of how woman were looked at just to show that being able to be a woman artist is not only a gift but it is power as well.  Woman should not be an object because at the end of the day we all have power within ourselves. 

The Newark Museum has a lot of woman art work that not only amaze you but also inspire you, click to watch a brief video about the Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood 19th- Century American Art . 

Citation

"Angles & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art.”  Newark Museum. 49 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102. 23 Nov. 2012.

Chadwick, Whitney. "Women, Art, and Society." New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.

"Lilly Martin Spencer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/559275/Lilly-Martin-Spencer

Parker, Christine." Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi." 1999-2011

http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/susanna.html 

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print