Essay on Femininity and Feminism and the Histories of Art
Griselda Pollock in her work “In Vision and Difference: Femininity and Feminism and the Histories of Art” gives us some arguments which extend beyond issues about impressionist painting and parity of artists who are women. She outlines the spaces of femininity in works of artists compering female artists and the artists, who are men.
The author indicates that a big amount of outstanding modern art works are considered and viewed extremely in the scope of sexuality and commercial exchange of it. In those works of art women are often pictured as subjects, which have a purpose to please men’s eye. We often see a bar with a female bartender or naked women in paintings (Olympia (1863) and A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1881-82) by EdouardManet).Have you ever seen a modern painting with a naked man on it? Such painting will look ridiculous. A huge amount of modern arts are simply made just for men, for their pleasure, and women are selling their bodies to the artists. There had been social and subjective difference between women and men for several centuries. Such asymmetry has a historical background.
The author mentions some female artists and their art works in order to compare them with paintings painted by male artists. Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt for instant were representatives of Impressionist exhibiting society. Griselda Pollockanalyses the differences between art works of these two female artists and male artists using space criteria. She analyses the location where women are depicted. In the case of female artists, private areas and domestic territory are included. On the contrary of male paintings, female artists depict women in the public domain scenes, for instance, of promenading, driving in the park, being at the theater, boating (At the terrace (1874), The harbor at Lorient (1869) by Berthe Morisot). Women are represented carrying their children, not being some naked courtesans or some bartenders. Women’s looks are not sexualized in the paintings of female artists.
The author is also pointing out the spatial argument. The spatial order within the painting made by women is different from the spatial order on the man’s painting. When we are talking about female’s works of art, it is reasonable to mention the following arguments. The disposition of different subjects and the point, from which the painting has been made, make the viewer involved and taken into position of depicted person. Sometimes the viewer’s gaze is obstructed from the foreground by the depicted figure. Therefore, the viewer feels some dislocation between the woman depicted and the rest of the world. There are boundaries between two spatial systems. The differences lie in the wayperson can relate to the painting and objects depicted in it. For example,The garden of the princess (1864) by EdouardManet gives the viewer only ability of observing the scene, not being present in the painting. It makes the viewer independent and absent. But the point of view of women’s painting put the person somewhere in the middle. The viewer is not absolutely absent, but also not to personally involved. The painting simply demonstrates historical moment.
The women may be depicted in exactly the opposite way depending on the location and clothing. The respectable woman is well dressed and accompanied by her husband in a park. The girl of easy virtue is showing some parts of her body and her dress is not so modest.
There was quite distinctive separation of women’s and men’s public territory in bourgeois society. Women were not supposed to visit public places alone. They were considered to be home keepers. If woman showed up alone in public places, she had risked to be judged by society. She could be disgraced and defamed. Female artists like Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt showed us that discomfort and vulnerability of lonely women in public places. Women depicted by Mary Cassatt in The Loge (1882) show the reality and true feelings of such women. One of them seems suppressed and the other one is covering her face. That is the evidence that they feel uncomfortable. The yeas of the public were fixed on these ladies. Male artist Auguste Renoir in The loge (1874) shows the same location but from a different point of view. The woman in his picture draws attention of a viewer to herself. She is depicted presumably for a male spectator. We see a picture of a woman. She is the only object of this painting.
It is Griselda Pollock’s opinion that that line between public and private life of a woman is not just a division of her world, it is also the frontier of the spaces of femininity. While men could move freely in public world, women were restricted. Women could not observe the world because of such restriction of visiting public places alone. On the contrary of man, woman had no freedom of looking and acknowledging. She was the object of men’s gaze by herself. It was a man who had a whole freedom.
The ways the women are depicted in private areas are also different. Female artist, Marry Cassat, for example, shows the maids simple washing. The maid is half naked. But not sexualized. She is not pictured as fallen woman. The artist depicted maid in the way, that she is not the subject of voyeuristic gaze. The viewer sees a simple act of private life. Griselda Pollock analyses Degas’s painting. The male artist shows the same act of private life in absolutely opposite way. The woman in his painting is definitely a subject to sexual commodification. It is also reasonable to mention about class division between women. The author suggests that bourgeoise and proletarian are depicted in different locations. It is a woman from the proletariat painted as a maid washing herself.
In conclusion Griselda Pollock is talking about the spaces of femininity nowadays. It still regulates women lives. Author indicates that modernity is still out there. It is still with us. Women are even more vulnerable to assault. Women are not able to move safely. They are still objects to annoying looks by men and even victim to sexual crimes. That is why it is so important to analyze modernist art works in the scope of femininity. It is important to discern sexualized structures and discover past resistance with the help of works of art. That could serve a factor to discovering new spaces of femininity.
Now I would like to test arguments given in paper work by Griselda Pollock, which were summarized above, using the assigned work of art. A Box at the Italian Theatre was painted by Eva Gonzalès in 1874. It is currently located in the permanent collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. A Box at the Italian Theatre may truly be considered as a representative of impressionism in female version.
At first, let’s analyze the space criteria. We see a woman in the public place. It is a decent place, which is a theater. Eva Gonzalès depicts the character of the painting sitting in the box, so we can assume that she seeks for some privacy. Woman perhaps wants to feel herself a little bit more comfortable that is why she chooses some enclosed space. The character prefers to avoid some annoying looks of men and condemnation. This woman is allegedly alone in the theater. But that fact that she has her seat in a box gives us these associations with wealth and status. She can afford this privileged seat. The analysis of the location and the dress of the lady depicted bring us to the conclusion that this woman is a representative of the bourgeoisie.
If we are talking about the women’s vulnerability in public places, we will see how precisely Eva Gonzalèsconveys this problematic. The seat next to the lady is empty. We can assume that she came alone. But the woman obviously doesn’t have the possibility of observing the performance. As we can see she is constantly under the gaze of some man. That man seems interested in the lady, but she has her eye glued to the scene. The woman is restricted again. She has denied in freedom of looking and observing peacefully without any interferences.
At the same time the posture and the way the woman sits gives us the feeling that she feels quite comfortable and that gaze of a man doesn’t disturb her.
The analyzed painting supports statements of Griselda Pollock mentioned in her work “In Vision and Difference: Femininity and Feminism and the Histories of Art”. It shows the way female artists depicted women with all their vulnerable nature. It depicts the spaces of femininity.
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