Where are the Women in Art - Assignment Example

Where are the Women in Art? Regardless of their vocations, their accomplishments or their achievements, women have had difficulty gaining recognition in a man’s world throughout history. This is as true of ‘professional’ positions such as architects and lawyers as it is true of creative fields such as art and writing. This difficulty grew out of the gendered concepts of women that developed throughout time. Initially considered incapable of understanding the greater spheres of the world outside the home, women only began to gain acknowledgement as valid members of society in the years leading into the Victorian era. Through the Middle Ages, the concept of ‘woman’ was still confined to the inner sanctity of the home and family. The concepts “by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors and society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues – piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Put them all together and they spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife – woman. Without them … all was ashes. With them, she was promised happiness and power” (Welter, 1966: 152). Numerous studies have been conducted that illustrate the various ways in which this ideology was upheld by both genders, expecting all women to ‘fall in line’ or risk being ostracized from the higher ranked society (Hewitt, 2002). Even though art was one of the few areas where women could gain a decent education, any attempt to step out of the boundaries of home and family into the commercial world of the professional artist was deemed unfeminine, thus strongly discouraged. Female artists faced tremendous difficulty gaining recognition for their work even well into the 20th century. A great deal of the difficulty in discovering female artists of the past is directly linked with gender constraint. According to Heller (1987), trying to establish the impact of women on the art world is made very difficult by the fact that the records that are available are erroneous or incomplete. Although some records hint they may have been altered, other works have definitely been wrongly credited to male teachers or relatives of brilliant female artists for the simple reason that no one believed women were capable of painting what they painted. Constrained on every side, there are numerous reports of women who dedicated themselves to a cloistered nunnery just so they would have some outlet for their artistic ability (Barlow, 2001). The images, sketches and written records of women artists at work that remain suggest that there must have been very skilled female artists even if they didn’t have the same access to instruction or practice (Morris, 2003). This assumption is further supported by the few, but recognized, female artists of the Renaissance era. “It was no longer believed that women were incapable of creating great art, yet the rarity of the event was made evident by the lack of noted women artists of the time. And, if they were noted, their work was considered a ‘lesser’ form of art” (Shubitz, 1999). Although the changes of the Victorian period ushered in a new definition for women’s roles, this did not necessarily open the doors for female artists. The National Museum of Women in the Arts (1998) points to Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842) as an example of a woman who painted her way to success thanks to an ability to “render all who came before her in a highly complimentary manner” (5). Because of her skill and proving the ideology of the time was still incapable of giving the woman her due, Vigee-Lebrun was often forced to prove her work to male counterparts who believed she had paid to have an unnamed male paint for her (MacFall, 1922). Other female artists faced similar difficulties. Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) had to pose as a man to gain recognition and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was harshly criticized throughout her career. Despite critical recognition for her artistry, Mary Cassatt’s work “has been devalued and isolated for being either too much concerned with the female experience … or too limited by it” (Vogel, 1988: 49). Moving into the 20th century, world-shaking scientific discoveries, tremendous advances in technology, the succession of two world wars and numerous new theories of the mind all brought long-established customs and norms of society into doubt (Radek, 2006). This was a world being shaken to its core by changing values. Increased interaction with other cultures and ideas opened more questioning at home. At the same time, women were discovering a capacity to do ‘men’s’ work in order to keep the country moving while the real men were off at war and thus managed to gain some little bit of respect for themselves even outside of the home. “The art world simultaneously experienced a drastic overhaul – the academies that had, for so long, defined the value of art became out-dated, and a myriad of new styles emerged. Women artists abandoned the limiting images of home and family, and, for the first time, used the image of the nude in their art” (Shubitz, 1999). This struggle to break free of the male-dominated art world is evident through the stories of Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo. Leonora Carrington was divided from birth. At 9 years old, her father expected her to adopt the traditional roles of her class and gender, enrolling her in catholic convents for education and finishing before presenting her at court at age 17 (Carrington, 2007). However, her mother surreptitiously encouraged her in the arts, encouraging her own motivation and self-exploration. Carrington eventually decided to become an artist and gained permission from her family to attend art school (Carrington, 2007). Her art, as can be seen in her painting “Self-Portrait”, reflects a great deal of the struggle she had in trying to establish her art. According to Chadwick (1986), the white rocking horse is a regular symbol of Carrington’s childhood. “A lonely child, she had cultivated an imaginary relationship with a rocking horse that stood in the nursery corner, the image reappears consistently in her later work” (Chadwick, 1986: 38). Its placement reinforces the importance of the chair that props up her figure at the same time that it threatens to drop her. Outside the window, a white horse is running from approximately the center of the painting toward the outer edge, moving in the direction of the hyena, which is strongly representative of Max Ernst. During her struggles to achieve recognition for her art, Carrington twice experienced mental breakdowns; it wasn’t until she fled from Europe and the German forces into Mexico under the protection of Max Ernst that she began to enjoy true recognition as an artist. Like Carrington, Frida Kahlo experienced numerous difficulties in trying to attain her artistic career, but these difficulties were caused by the physical accidents and ailments of her life (Beck, 2006). Her physical difficulties encouraged her art as it was one of the few things she could do from her bed. Like Carrington, Kahlo was introduced to the art world by her mother, who gave her an art set and had a mirror installed in the canopy above Kahlo’s bed to practice self-portraits (Beck, 2006). Her marriage to Diego Rivera, one of her biggest fans, easily introduced her into the international artistic circles, but did little to promote her to the greater general public. In spite of this easy acceptance, Kahlo’s work also demonstrates the same desperate struggle to find balance, particularly in her 1939 self-portrait “The Two Fridas.” The relationship between herself and her childhood imaginary friend becomes a means of expressing the two sides of Kahlo when she was divorced from Diego. One Frida is dressed in European clothing, the part of her inherited from her father and the portion of her that Diego does not love (Stechler, 2005). The other Frida has found success and happiness in her traditional Indian clothing and the strength of her whole heart. Even in the new age of technology, women’s rights and liberation, the struggles of women to gain recognition within the art world continue. Several cases exist, such as that between Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, in which the talent of the female is eclipsed by or discounted because of the male she is associated with. While increasing numbers of women have achieved recognition for contributing fabulous works of art to the world’s treasures, these works continue to betray tremendous struggle for recognition and consideration as something other than ‘merely’ women’s art. The long-standing assumption that women are unqualified for anything outside the home has finally been grudgingly accepted, but the fundamental concepts that fed it – that women were incapable of the same level of thought as men and incapable of mastering to the same degree the techniques of art - have not yet been removed from the greater mindset. Works Cited Barlow, Margaret. Women Artists. USA: Beaux Arts Editions, 2001. Beck, Jennifer. “Artist Hero: Frida Kahlo.” Artist Heroes. (July 12, 2006). April 30, 2010 Carrington, Pablo. Surrealist Art by Leonora Carrington. (2007). April 30, 2010 Chadwick, Whitney. “Leonora Carrington: Evolution of a Feminist Consciousness.” Woman’s Art Journal. 1986: 37-42. Heller, N. Women Artists: An Illustrated History. New York: Cross River Press, 1987. Hewitt, Nancy. “Taking the True Woman Hostage.” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 14, N. 1. 2002, pp. 156-62. MacFall, Haldane. Vigee Le Brun: Masterpieces in Colour. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack Ltd, 1922. Morris, Roderick Conway. “Shattering a Renaissance Glass Ceiling.” International Herald Tribune. May 31, 2003. National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). “Permanent Collection Tour: Establishing the Legacy.” (1998). Radek, Kimberly M. “Women in the Twentieth Century and Beyond.” Women in Literature. May 30, 2006. Illinois Valley Community College. April 30, 2010 Shubitz, Jeannie. “Women, Art and Gender: A History.” Southwestern Women Artists: Erased from History. (April 26, 1999). University of Arizona. April 30, 2010 Stechler, Amy. “The Two Fridas.” The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. 2005. Public Broadcasting Station. April 30, 2010 Vogel, L. “Fine Arts and Feminism: The Awakening Consciousness.” Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology. A. Raven, C.L. Langer & J. Frueh (Eds.). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1988. Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly. Vol. 18, N. 2, P. 1. 1966, pp. 151-74. Read More