#studiopractice3

based on the success of my take on ‘flesh coloured tights’, i decided to recreate more images from black art history. Here i have taken inspiration from portrait of a negress. 

The earliest known portrait of a black women is a ‘Portrait of Madeleine’, formally known as Portrait of a Negress by Marie-Guillemine Benoist. (see image 1). This painting first exhibited in the Louvre in 1800. Although picked out by art critics, it evoke a negative response, being described as “noirceur” meaning “black stain” by a critic for a conservative paper. The piece consists with the Neoclassical conventions of portraiture prevailing France at the time; depicting a woman, oriented to the left, facing the audience with a sober expression. However, this woman is black and unlike standard 18th century painting, she is not companied by a white woman. Painted by a female who belonged to a small circle of professional female painters, it is thought that the piece was painting of the artists own initiative, as a small voice of protest to slavery and the treatment of women.

Again, working with 1 model from their home came with challenges with lighting and space and backgrounds. We found a corner in the porch where the model could sit without being seen by neighbours. however, due to clashing work schedules the shoot took place at night meaning there was no natural light. we used artificial ceiling lights and editing to brighten the image and make it clearer. 

when editing, i Increased saturation, Decreased contrast and Increased exposure just slightly unit i was happy with the brightness and quality. however, the final image is a lot colder than the original painting. the beige background in the original warms the image and compliments the models skin. however, the arterial lighting in my picture against grey and white walls made for a colder atmosphere that makes the darkness of the models skin stand out more. 

The props, blanket and head wrap, in the photograph were improvised. we used objects found around the home rather than buying replicas. this again reflects the new COBID lifestyle we are all living with shops closed and limited access. for the headwrap, we used a white t-shirt and for the blanket we used an inside out bed sheet. it was unusual not being prepared but made the proccess more fun experimenting with props. 

Gustave Boulanger discreetly subverted gender through his painting off ‘Hercules at the feet of Ompahle’, by looking at gender dominance and gender role reversal. The painting depicts a scene from Greek mythology. Hercules is forced to live as a slave to the Queen of Lydia, Omphale, after inadvertently killing Iphitus. Omphale claims Hercules’ club and lion skin and she wears them as a sign of her dominance, Hercules is in turn made to wear female clothing and undertake feminine tasks such as sewing. 

Boulanger interestingly uses a badger brush which was associated female artists and their work. In the 19th century, mediums and techniques were gendered and using a badger brush was seen as feminine. Due to this, male artists were ridiculed for adopting this process in their work as it was considered ‘un-manly’. However, Boulanger uses the brush to challenge the perception of the time and what society then classed to be ‘Feminine’. Although he also used the technique to heighten the femininity of Hercules, the same way he does with dressing him in pink clothing.

Boulanger reverses the roles of gender in his painting by accentuating the role reversal, he represented Omphale centred in the painting (which is often given to male figures), were as Hercules was slumped and had taken on the feminine positioning. Boulanger goes against traditional views on how men and women are presented in art, by placing them in these positioning. 

Frida Kahlo is a Mexican Painter who had no interest in conforming to social norms of gender in her artwork. Kahlo had an ongoing boldness towards gender which was apparent through herself portraits. 

In Kahlo's ‘Self-portrait with Cropped Hair’ she shows her attitude towards conforming to gender norms. The painting was painted at a troubled time for Kahlo, just months after she divorced her husband Diego Rivera. In the painting Kahlo has discarded the feminine attributes with which she often portrayed herself with and her husband had always admired, such as her long dark hair. Instead, she is shown to have substituted these features for short-clipped hair. Rejecting her femininity is an act of resistance, frustrated by only being seen for her attributes, like most women of her time. Kahlo also swaps her traditional Mexican dress, that she is often seen wearing, for an oversized masculine suit, that resembles the ones Rivera wore. By swapping her traditional dress for an oversized suit, Kahlo is rejecting the traditional traits of masculinity and femininity. The manly haircut, stern expression and masculine clothing contrast with her delicate earrings and high heels. Kahlo has done this to resemble her sexuality in the painting. The way she has added small feminine elements like the high heels, earrings and rosey cheeks shows her feminine side. Where as the masculine attributes show the masculine side to Kahlo, this could be her way of resembling her Bisexuality through her work.

Kahlo has become an icon of feminism, freedom and gender fluidity and is instant recognisable for her monobrow, strong features and slight moustache. Features which are often associated with males. She actively challenged the expectations and preconceptions traditionally placed on women. Kahlo subverts her own gender in her artwork by creating portraits that emphasise the fluidity of gender and rejecting rigid masculine and feminine characteristics. Kahlo actively challenged the expectations and preconceptions traditionally placed on women, especially Mexican woman. 

http://members.tripod.com/sadashivan_nair/freephotos4ursocialstudy/id35.html

‘”ART” Is a reflection of identity.

This year I took part of the 20:20 print Exchange. I already designed my Lino print before deciding to look at how sexuality and gender is represented through the media, so I have kept my original idea just for my Lino print. I choose to do a Lino print because I thought it would be the best way to get my print accurate a number of times. I also thought it would be the best to get my image across. Lino is more of a block type of print and I needed something simple but bold for my image. 

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renee Matilda Schwobs, was a French Photographer, Sculpture and Writer. The gender-ambigious name Claude Cahun was adopted in 1917.

Cahun’s work are often self-portraits, in which Cahun assumes a variety of personas, which often undermine traditional concepts of static gender roles. The portraits are often both political and personal, with the work often undermine the traditional concepts of static gender roles. In her autobiography ‘Disavowals’ Cahun explained, “Masculine? Feminine? it depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” Cahun's work is usually personal, with her looking at and questioning their own gender, protesting gender and sexual norms.

In the photograph ‘Self Portrait, Hand Between Hands’ (1920) Cahun has began to further their transitioned from the childhood identity of Lucy Schwob to the gender-neutral persona of Claude Cahun. The long hair is replaced by a shaved scalp, stripping away traditional associations of allure made for women. The image presents a vision of gender-neutrality, whilst illustrating Cahun’s personal journey at the time, produced whilst immersed within a flourishing Parisian lesbian avant-garde community. During the time Cahun made this portrait throughout post-war Europe an overall questioning of gender constructions becomes significant. Other artists like Frida Kahlo, who typically wore a mans suit in 1920s and then later painted ‘Self Portrait with Cropped Hair’ followed suit with questioning gender and sexuality during this time.

Cahun’s often photographs herself with an air of detachment and a general lack of feeling, often contrasted with the highly expressive face repeatedly painted by Munch. Which also relates to the way Cahun positions their hands to be placed either side of a vacant face is done not only to recall the intensity of lived experience like ‘The Scream’ by Munch, but also to create the illusion that they hold a mask. Cahun makes references to masks in many of their artworks. As such, the mask often reveals hidden depths of identity which is regularly denied by a conforming society. By embracing the metaphor Cahun touches on the contemporary theoretical discussion that associates mask with one’s acceptance/rejection of identity and gender.

The photograph, however, is not only commenting on shifting gender politics but also how women have suffered for standing out as being ‘different’

In 1927, Cahun created a series of self-portrait “I am in training don’t kiss me”, where as unlike their early work Cahun presents an obviously constructed identity, using props, styled clothing and make-up. In the series Cahun adopts the paradoxical representation of a feminized strongman and performs various poses as such. Cahun combines masculine and feminine stereotypes by using this persona: by holding painted weights, pseudo-nipples that are sewn onto the shirt and they have even displaced a traditional weight-lifter moustache onto the curls of cropped hair. 

The statement “I am in training don’t kiss me” written across Cahun’s chest, which is quite humorous, is inviting but at the same time contemptuous and mocking, ridiculing the viewer for being attracted to what is not on offer. The theatrical nature of the strongman series questions the space between genders and challenges the idea that gender is entirely fixed rather than fluid. 

In the last photograph Cahun presents themselves as bold, androgynous and doubled by a mirrored-reflection. Traditionally, the inclusion of a mirror in art was used as a convenient way to expose two enticing views of a female subject or as a way to emphasise a woman’s vanity. However, in Cahun's photograph they are looking away from the mirror and is engaging with the viewers, in away Cahun is rejecting the typecast of being a passive woman. 

In this photograph Cahun presents themselves in two different opposing personalities. The face facing the camera has their collar raised covering their neck, however the face of the reflection reveals an erotic neck, it presents one face as shy and the other as confident and carefree. It some how represents the two differences of how women are represented through art and as an object, either shy and compliant for example a house wife or confident and erotic. There is a parallel to this photograph; how Cahun sees their self now and how they use to see themselves. However, it is not just a portrait that explores Cahun but it also explores others and their reflections.