Chan, Hau Ying. / "December 2010." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-186). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Content --- p.v / Chapter Chapter 1 - --- Introduction --- p.1-38 / Chapter Chapter 2 - --- The body of female life models --- p.39-68 / Chapter Chapter 3 - --- Managing sexuality and maintaining modesty --- p.69-96 / Chapter Chapter 4 - --- Professionalism and passionate work --- p.97-129 / Chapter Chapter 5 - --- The performance of female life models --- p.130-172 / Conclusion --- p.174-181 / Bibliography --- p.182-186 / Chapter Appendix 1- --- A brief introduction of models interviewed --- p.187-189

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This dissertation examines two controversies involving paintings of the female nude by artists Debora Arango and Carlos Correa during a period of political crisis in Bogota (Colombia) in order to open the political to cultural analysis and thus shed light on scenarios of change in the 1930s and 1940s. Unpacking the controversies lends insight into the unique ways in which modernity, the body, its representations, sexuality, gender and politics came together in Colombia during this period. Such an approach also shows that modernity in Colombia involved shifts in religious and secular frames of sense-making and morality. This dissertation argues that the controversies and the female nudes provide a window into the Liberal regime's creation of culture as an autonomous sphere as part of its cultural program, which bridged high and popular culture, as well as on aspects of private life concerned with sexuality and gender. It shows how such changes registered in the lives of the artists and how the artists translated the changes they experienced into modes of pictorial expression. This dissertation argues that the demands of the aesthetic and the demands of politics during this period pressed on each other, resulting in the wide-spread perception of moral breach that came to a head in the "scandals of the female nudes." This dissertation thus sheds light on dimensions of both the political and the private during this period. / Because art and politics were thus entangled, this dissertation shows that, in this particular Colombian modernity, society was not polarized, that the private and the private overlapped, that issues of intimacy surfaced in the public realm, and that Catholicism was the idiom shared by men and women who were grappling with change. It shows that the cultural program of the Liberal regime was the immediate referent for criticism in these events and, through it, of the Liberal regime's reforms of education of 1934 and 1936. Finally, it shows that this modernity and its attendant anxieties were played out through the body in the public and the private realms, within, not against, the Catholic tradition, in unprecedented ways. This thesis demonstrates that politics and issues of sexuality and gender were entangled in the public sphere and converged in the female nudes, turning them into a major threat to morality within both religious and secular frameworks. By unpacking the controversies, this dissertation marks a seminal break with historical accounts that describe Colombia's as a failed modernity, its society as polarized, and debates over sexuality and gender as the product of politics. This dissertation also contradicts art historical writings that account for the production of images and the reception of art in this period solely in political terms.

Rubens' material reality culminates in the tableau which he named Het Pelsken (Flemish for 'The little Fur,' known also as La Pelisse). Of his vast oeuvre it is the most frequently cited work, described by one spectator as an "oil painting of a subject quite unusual...a beautiful woman naked beneath her dark fur." 1 Among art historians the tableau has been the subject of debate as to its 'meaning,' especially since the life-size image does not include narrative paraphernalia that would allow mythological interpretations. But as one scholar wrote, "most are relieved that the work was never meant to be sold."2 / This dissertation's trajectory is different. It points to Rubens' late style tableaux, of which Het Pelsken is one, as items painted in an exquisite technique effecting (bodily) presence, and conceived as commodities destined for circulation. Thus the works are heavily invested by producer(s) and buyer(s). Painted in a sophisticated allegorical language that simultaneously defies easy (narrative) access and yet keeps viewers continuously spellbound, Het Pelsken is being reframed together with some of Rubens' other paintings to establish a dialogue with today's audience. This study analyzes the allegorical paradigm by way of Walter Benjamin's dialectics in order to locate levels of truth---which are of relevance to current viewers---and also probes the forces that generate such an overt and repeated display of the feminine body. In so doing, the study also spotlights neo-allegorists, who in their' more recent art practice reconnect with Rubens and disconnect with some compositional and technical strategies of the Baroque master's paintings. These artists include contemporaries Robert Rauschenberg, Peter Dressler and Jean-Luc Godard. / 1Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, please see Chapter One for more of his commentary. 2Julius Held's research and response is also taken up in Chapter One.

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The purpose of this essay is to investigate The Woman with the Puppets by Isobel Gloag from a feminist perspective, to find how it challenge the male gaze and patriarchy. I also seek to understand how other female artists past and present compare to Gloag’s painting. The method is Panofsky’s iconology with modifications through Aavitsland’s thoughts of the grammatical structure that the composition holds. To reach social bearings upon the ability to generate this type of historical genre painting Bourdieu’s toolbox of capital, habitus and strategies has been applied. The painting is a feminist expression of the feminist discussions regarding marriage, equality and law that took place at the time of the paintings creation. Through the use of established norm with an ambiguity, female nude and male marionette puppets, the male gaze and patriarchy is challenged. Gloag is the only female artist of her time that has generated a history genre painting in a feminist spirit that challenges multitude of issues in one composition.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the Swedish artist Marianne Lindberg De Geer’s public sculpture Jag tänker på mig själv in relation to the female nude as a traditional motif within the western art and aesthetic. The artwork in question depicts two naked upright standing women, one of whom is represented as emaciated and skinny and the other one as voluminous and fat. By using previous research on the subject of aberrant bodily representations as its main theoretical framework and with a methodological approach based on visual semiotics, this study has found that Jag tänker på mig själv is to be seen as a deviant representation of the female body in several ways. The way in which the female body is represented in Marianne Lindberg De Geer’s sculpture has shown to deviate not only from the traditional female nude but also from the visual norms that usually characterizes aberrant representations of the female-coded body.

This essay examines the performance artworks Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969), Interior Scroll (1975) and S.O.S Starification Object Series (1974-82) by artists VALIE EXPORT, Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke. The objective is to analyse the expressions of these artworks, from a theoretical viewpoint of feminist art-theoreticians and their critique regarding the female body in representation. Performance- and body-art have been the subject of discussion with respect to the female nude in the history of art, and the patriarchal structures that surround it. These eminent theories about the female body in art differ from one another, leaving this study to investigate given works and the explicit body-language that unites them, with the aim to identify a favourable representation of the female body in 1960sand 70s performance art with the vantage point of these artworks. The present essay has demonstrated that vaginal iconology exists in all works and can be presented in various ways. It becomes clear that the work of VALIE EXPORT provides a framework most suitable as a feminist, critical strategy to counteract the notion of the male gaze, framing, and representation of the body as commodity in capitalist-society. However, the works of Schneemann and Wilke, with more essentialist themes, can through ambiguity contribute to a positive representation of woman in representation. There is no simple answer to which way 2 of using the body is the most beneficial for feminism, however, a critical representation of the female body in performance and body art, in relation to the artists’ own intentions, creates positive ambiguity, thus these artworks do not only reinforce patriarchal conventions regarding the female body.

The intent of this paper is to study the growing trend of depicting the female body in interior design and the creators behind them. The naked female body is a recurring subject in western european art, often depicted as an object of desire in line with the conventions and ideas of the time. A rising interest in interior design along with feminisms body positivity movement has led to a wide range of products on the market depicting the female body. However these products may not always be aligned with feminist values and could instead be seen as objectifying and upholding old art traditions. By looking at different categories of producers, the study analyzes the creators intention and how this affects the meaning and interpretation of the piece. The analysis is done using feminism, marxism, and semiotic theory as theoretical frameworks. Smaller creators operating on instagram, have used the naked female body as an expression against patriarchal views with an intention to portray the female body as naked instead of nude for the male gaze. The intention is clear as well as the presence  of the creator in the handmade objects. In contrast, for big companies that massproduce through factory manufacturing the intention gets lost and the hands that create are left anonymous. This results in a different interpretation of the female body and a higher risk of objectification.