Gendering the Image

For this session, our tutor gave to us two images. One was by a woman, the other by a man and we had to guess in groups which was which and give reasons for our chosen answer. Through the task I found it easier and easier to decipher which image belonged to which gender but also showed how it is possible to stereotype an artists work. 

One sheet contained two images of embroidered clothing, it was relatively easy to give reasons for which was the product of the male and which one belonged to the female. Many of us having basic understanding of history, went for the heavily embellished garment to be the mans work, simply because only boys were educated for the larger part of the last 1,000 years. It was when it came to the line drawings that it became increasingly strained to give an answer alongside an explanation.

One set of images that was quite interesting was two of the female form. One glorified the female form and the other showed it in a more realistic way, this is the one that we deemed to be the female- due to the imperfections of the form and such and how women tend to view themselves more negatively. 

This leads me onto the age old struggle of the woman in art, the styles of painters from years ago are now the styles of the models we are bombarded with in modern life. Women tend to be in the male view for the majority of history and usually the opposite sex paint their ideal woman, especially in earlier centuries with the pre Raphelites and their predecessors. 

I wanted to look at Jenny Saville for the last part of this post simply because I love her raw oil paintings and how they glorify the female shape in all forms. 

Shift, Oil on canvas, 1996-7.

Her sometimes grotesquely deformed female forms, are filled with such life and personality and celebration of the female form, they offer a realistic alternative to previous artists from past centuries attempts to create character within this form. they are not perfect, porceline skinned beauties, they're much more than Rueben-esque and they're beautiful. 

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/jenny_saville.htm