From Introduction: The ideal of femininity which developed in Renaissance painting, was a visual and psychological type which was to become the Western European Christian formula of the feminine. This type has survived until the present day, so a discussion of its origins can be revealing for us in the twentieth century, especially as it has been neglected in traditional art historical works. In this essay, the changes in the image of the feminine, in just under three hundred years of Florentine painting, starting with Giotto1. and ending with Raphael~· will be covered. The images will be taken from the wo rk of artists who were Florentine in training, who worked in the city or who were strongly influenced by the Florentine style of painting. I have divided the paintings I have studied into three sections. In the Religious section the paintings are mainly of Mary. The Mythological images refer to Greek and Roman myths and the humanistic interpretations of them. Finally, the Portrait and Genre images are selected on the following basis: In the genre paintings they are sometimes part of works related to religion or mythology, but, in their handling, the painters treat the figures as real human beings rather than holy or mythological figures. In others they are bona fide portrait representations. 3. I have made the above distinction because I expect that the gap between religio-mythological images and portraits will give some indication of the difference between the ideal and the reality for women of that time. The images will be analysed and changes noted in favoured types, gestures, expressions, movements, placing in the composition, relationships to others, favoured themes, costume, colour and symbols. I will point out as I proceed the effects that these elements had on the mood and tone of each image.

Scottish artists Margaret and Frances Macdonald produced their most innovative art during the last decade of the nineteenth century. They received their training at the Glasgow School of Art and became known for their contribution to "the Glasgow Style," Scotland's answer to Continental Art nouveau and Symbolism. Although they inherited their visual vocabulary from the male-dominated language of the fin-de-siècle, they produced representations of women that differed from those made by their male colleagues. I suggest that these representations were informed by the female experience and that they must be understood as such if we, as historians, are to discuss their art. Like many other women artists from this period, the Macdonalds relied heavily upon so-called feminine imagery. This could be flower painting, "dainty" landscapes, pictures of children or pictures of "lovely" women. The Macdonalds strayed from conventional meaning, however, and made pictures of women that, while retaining the mystery of symbolism, presented the viewer with contextually accurate representations of women who were bound and restricted by a society that had not yet allowed women the vote. I suggest that these representations be considered in the light of recent theoretical developments in feminist literary criticism and feminist film theory which give credence to women as producers of culture while remaining aware that culture is a patriarchal construction. My contention is that if we can comprehend the patriarchal construct of woman during the fin-de-siècle then we may be able to understand how the Macdonalds (and other women like them) strayed from this representation and made their own images (perhaps in their own likeness or at least in the likeness of their situation). Knowledge about how women's experience was integrated into the visual language may lead us to a greater understanding of that experience and its subsequent production as art and, in addition, may bring about a greater valuation of women's experience and its representation. / Graduate

This study investigates my art works, their context, content, and the process by which they were produced. The first part of the study addresses my background ideas and philosophies, their impact on my works, and the environmental and psychological context which made those ideas relevant to my paintings. I am not concerned with answering the usual questions, What is art? and Who is an artist? My intention is to find out who I choose to be and what I choose to do. The second part investigates the form and design of the art works– from the materials used to make them to the various formal elements utilized in creating them. The connection of form and content in these art works is emphasized. The last part of the study investigates the influences of a few significant artists and the impacts of their works on my art. The future of my art work is, of course, not predictable, and it does not depend on this study. This study is only as factual, reliable, and truthful as my art work is

The research investigated the artistic and photographic processes corresponding with two studies motivated by the artist's personal history and focused on the role, affect, and history of various female idols represented in art history, religion, and modern American popular media. The first part of the study documented female models as they were simultaneously asked by the artist to think of a range of personal but nonspecific moments from her life, the women were asked not to share their thoughts, only the moment spent thinking, with the artist. The second part of the study documented aspiring models as they awoke during sunrise in the nightwear they slept in (fig 1). This study incorporated landscapes near the models home. A similar notion is iii exemplified between the two studies as the models are asked to procure an intimacy with the photographer and in consequence with the viewer. The written part of the study gathered information regarding the female idols presence in a variety of cultures and eras, which transitioned to question the female idols current role in western culture. Findings showed that all idols stress an approved appearance, behavior and morality; furthermore research shows that the modern female idol stresses an importance on appearance more than any other factor. The research continued by breaking down the importance of a viewer-subject relationship in iconography and other artworks. A focus was made on what factors might create this viewer-subject relationship, and furthermore what do the subtleties of the subject tell the viewer. Reference of the artist's memories of an inconsistent female role model in her own life combined with the idols that were constantly solicited by the media resulted in this investigation. A positive relationship was found between the photographic process and the study of models in personal moments.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether The Large Glass was a negation of women for Marcel Duchamp. The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter I is the introduction to the thesis. CHapter II includes a synopsis of the major interpretations of The Large Glass. Duchamp's statements in regard to The Large Glass are also included in Chapter II. Chapter III explains how The Large Glass works through the use of Duchamp's notes. Chapter IV investigates Duchamp's negation of women statement in several ways. His personal relationships with relatives including his wives and other women, and his early paintings of women were examined. His idea of indifference was seen within the context of the Dandy and his alter ego, Rrose Selavy as a Femme Fatale. His machine paintings are also seen as a part of his idea of detachment and negation of women. Detachment as an intellectual pursuit was probed with his life-long interest in chess. The Large Glass was then seen as not only showing inconographically a negation of women but also as being an intrinsic component of his life and his work.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A spectacle denotes an impressive or deplorable sight, and necessarily involves the power and politics of viewing. The female body exists as a sexualised object of these processes of looking within Western culture, not only in high art, but also in discourses such as medicine and science. In both art and medicine the female body has been treated as a passive object to be studied, analysed and classified. Power relations and patriarchal ideologies have played a great part in the resulting objectifying representations, firmly locating images of the female body within the realm of the spectacle. Bodily perceptions, in terms of the female body, have changed much, particularly through the reinterpretation of sexuality through feminist theory. Modem culture and technology have opened up many new possibilities for the redefinition and understanding of the body. Modem bodies seem to be under as much close surveillance and scrutiny as their nineteenth century counterparts. This study explores these ideas through a wide range of examples from painting, photography and performance art, and non-art objects such as anatomical objects and medical illustrations. Central to the construction of the body as spectacle, are issues of looking and viewing. Chapter 1 examines ideas around the gaze; the politics and processes of vision, objectification and fetishisation are explored in relation to the functioning of the medical and aesthetic gaze. The concept of spectacle is also elaborated upon in terms of ideas around the nineteenth century carnival and freak show, and in terms of societal taboos and transgression. Aspects of aesthetic and medical discourse focus on the display and scrutiny of the female body. Chapter 2 examines the way in which these discourses attempted to reveal the female body by rendering it in highly visual terms. The dominant ideologies informing both discourses played an instrumental role and resulted in representations that defined the female body in normative standards and ideals of beauty and health. Pornography is considered as a modem discourse in which the female body is defined and displayed as an object of scrutiny. Feminist theory challenged exclusively male representations of the female body and the subversion of traditional forms of representation of women is studied by examining the work of Annie Sprinkle and Cindy Sherman. Many representations of the female body by feminist artists are considered highly disturbing and transgressive, precisely because they traverse traditional and acceptable representations of it. The idealised nude forms the epitome of contained ideals of health and beauty, and the work of Orlan and Cindy Sherman is examined within these terms in Chapter 3. These artists' representations of the female body are in direct opposition to such norms, rather settling for an open-ended, unconfined and abject representation. However, such transgressive cultural images produced by women artists are often regarded as pathological acts, and dismissed in terms of deplorable spectacle. The research concludes with a commentary on the candidate's practical work, which in dealing with the representation of the human body explores some issues of visuality, spectacle and fragmentation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Spektakel kan op 'n indrukwekkende of betreurenswaardige skouspel dui; gevolglik betrek dit die politiese en magseienskappe van besigtiging. Die vroulike liggaam bestaan as 'n seksuele objek van só 'n proses van besigtiging binne die Westerse kultuur - nie net in kuns nie, maar ook in diskoerse soos geneeskunde en die wetenskap. In beide kuns en geneeskunde, is die vroulike liggaam beskou as 'n passiewe objek vir bestudering, analisering en klassifisering. Magsverhoudinge en ideologieë het gevolglik 'n groot rol gespeel in die uiteindelike objektifiserende representasies, en gevolglik is die uitbeelding van die vroulike liggaam in terme van spektakel vasgelê. Liggaamlike persepsies, veral in terme van die vroulike figuur, het noemenswaardige veranderinge ondergaan - veral deur die hervertolking van seksualiteit deur feministiese teorie. Moderne kultuur en tegnologie bied verdere moontlikhede vir die herdefiniëring en begrip van die liggaam. Die moderne liggaam word onder streng bewaking en betragting geplaas - net soos sy negentiende-eeuse ewebeeld. Hierdie studie ondersoek dié idees deur die bestudering van 'n verskeidenheid voorbeelde vanuit skilderkuns, fotografie en 'performance' -kuns, asook objekte soos anatomiese objekte en mediese illustrasies. Kwessies van besigtiging is sentraal tot die konstruksie van die liggaam as spektakel. Hoofstuk londersoek dus idees rondom besigtiging - onder andere die politiese en magseienskappe, en die gevolglike objektifiserende effek daarvan - in verhouding tot die funksionering van die mediese en die estetiese blik. Die konsep van spektakel word verder uitgebrei in terme van die negentiende-eeuse karnaval, asook in terme van taboes en sosiale oortreding. Sekere aspekte van estetiese en mediese diskoerse fokus op die vertoning en besigtiging van die vroulike liggaam. Hoofstuk 2 ondersoek die wyse waarop hierdie diskoerse die vroulike liggaam in hoogs visuele terme uitgebeeld het. Beide diskoerse is gemotiveer deur dominante ideologieë, wat gevolglik 'n instrumentele rol gespeel het in die uitbeelding van die vroulike liggaam. Sulke uitbeeldings is dikwels gemotiveer deur standaarde en ideale van skoonheid. Gevolglik word pornografie in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek as 'n moderne diskoers wat georganiseer is rondom die vertoning en besigtiging van die vroulike liggaam. Feministiese teorie skep 'n positiewe ruimte waarin sulke eksklusiewe, manlike definisies en uitbeeldings van die vroulike liggaam uitgedaag kan word. Die omverwerping van tradisionele metodes van uitbeelding word hier ondersoek deur die werk van Annie Sprinkle en Cindy Sherman te bespreek. Die herdefiniëring van die vroulike liggaam deur feministiese kunstenaars word dikwels beskou as onstellend; waarskynlik omdat dit tradisionele en aanvaarbare uitbeeldings van die liggaam oortree. Die werk van Orlan en Cindy Sherman word in terme van sosiale oortreding in Hoofstuk 3 ondersoek. Die klassieke naakfiguur stel die ideale van skoonheid en stabiliteit voor. Hierdie kunstenaars se uitbeeldings toon egter 'n doelbewuste verontagsaming van sulke ideale, deurdat hulle eerder 'n oop, onstabiele en gefragmenteerde figuur uitbeeld. Oortredings van kulturele norme deur vrouekunstenaars word dikwels beskou as patalogiese aksies; en dit word dus maklik afgekeur as 'n spektakel. Die navorsing word afgesluit met 'n bespreking van die kandidaat se praktiese werk, wat die uitbeelding van die menslike liggaam ondersoek. Gevolglik word kwessies van besigtiging, spektakel en fragmentasie verder ondersoek.

The thesis concerns representations of Roman women of the imperial period depicted in the guise of a divinity. Portraits of women of all social levels have been included as have representations in any media excluding numismatic evidence. The latter, with its specific contextual characteristics, is only included and discussed as comparanda for the main body of material. The juxtaposition of a recognisable reality and a heightened reality in these representations raises a variety of interpretative questions: whether it is possible to establish a correlation between the mythological interpretation of a goddess and the socio-personal interpretation of an image of a mortal woman; the nature of the message being communicated through the choice of a particular deity; and whether the choice of deity for association in some way may be seen to conform to established ideals or topoi for women. The work examines Roman portraiture as a vehicle for self-expression and the transmission of ideals. Various aspects of the 'mechanics' for achieving this (idealisation, imitation, etc.) are investigated. Though, of particular importance to the argument is the relationship between image and spectator: the perception of portraits and the various factors contributing to forming an interpretation. Thus portraiture is established as a medium which within its contextual framework also includes the spectator - and the spectator's cultural reference points. The main body of the thesis centres on a dual examination of the range of deities with which Roman women were associated and the women presented in the divine guises, respectively proposing avenues of interpretations for the divine allusions and offering suggestions for methods of interpreting their use. The examination of the various deities in whose guises Roman women appear is also juxtaposed with the distinctions and attributes used to characterise women in literary and epigraphic sources. The correlation between these helps to elucidate the values represented in the images of women under discussion, and how they fit within a framework of ideals and virtues, and with the social personae of Roman women. Similarly, affinities between social status and mythological depiction are juxtaposed with a discussion of the role of the mythological representations themselves - exploring especially the relationship between mythological narrative and the tradition of exempla in Roman literature. It is further argued that interpretation is influenced also by viewer response - encouraged through empathetic identification and social emulation - and that the images of women in divine guises therefore may be perceived both as revealing intrinsic personal characteristics and as a costume symbolically articulating aspirational values. The inherent duality in these representations does in other words not so much concern degrees of reality as interacting realities: the individual"as a social participant, the public persona evidencing personal virtues. The images of Roman women presented therefore contain equally a reconfiguring response to the world and a socialising affirmation of identity.

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the fatal woman motif in the writings and art of Edvard Munch from the early 1890s to 1909. It uses a background of the women in the artist's life as well as the literary and artistic worlds in which Munch participated. Following separate accounts of Munch's relationships with five women, the manner in which the artist characterizes each as a fatal woman in his writings and art is discussed and analyzed. Next, the study describes the fatal woman motif in late nineteenth century art and literature. It begins with a discussion of the origin of the Symbolist and Decadent Movements and an ideological examination of the fatal woman motif as it is manifested in the writing and art of these two groups. In addition, it compares Munch's visual manifestations of the femme fatale with the manner in which the artist's contemporaries depicted her. Finally, this study describes two groups of men with whom Munch was particularly close: the Christiania Bohéme and the Schwarzen Ferkel Circle. An examination of the literary works of these men helps to determine the way in which they affected Munch's pictorial perception of the fatal woman.

Orientador: Laércio Fidelis Dias / Banca: Rafael Salatini / Banca: Gabriel Cunha Salum / Resumo: Esta dissertação de mestrado tem por objetivo geral desdobrar como deu-se a consolidação da imagem das pin-ups estadunidenses como produto nacional de alcance mundial e a maneira como alcançaram a representatividade das mulheres ao encará-las como um ideal a se seguir. Ao interrogarmos como essas mulheres se fizeram tão presentes no imaginário dos anos de 1930 a 1950 trataremos de sua entrada nos meios de comunicação - que não se restringiriam as revistas - e acabariam por tomar o mercado e os meios de comunicação de modo geral a partir das ilustrações de Gillete Elvgren, George Petty e Alberto Vargas. Assim através do estudo de teóricos, tais como Maria Elena Buszek, se buscará compreender como uma massificação da imagem das garotas pin-ups, cada vez mais padronizada foi inserida na indústria de consumo e amparada também pela indústria em época de guerra, sobretudo com a Segunda Guerra Mundial. Elas conduziriam o que se viria a se esperar das mulheres em meio à guerra: se tornarem fortes e serem autênticas nacionalistas, construindo assim um valor patriótico a partir da imagem feminina inserida e unificada como símbolo do patriotismo e da liberdade do povo estadunidense. Somando-se a este objetivo, será mapeada a atuação destas mulheres na implantação de uma cultura nacional estadunidense e no processo de transformação da intimidade e percepção com o corpo, que se deu principalmente durante o ápice dos Anos Dourados, que abarca os anos de 1940 e 1950, período que marcou tamb... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This master's thesis has as general objective to unfold as the consolidation of the image of the US pin-ups as a national product of world-wide reach and the way in which the representativeness of the women was given when facing them like an ideal to be followed . When we questioned how these women became so present in the imagery of the 1930s and 1950s, we will consider their entry into the media - which would not be restricted to magazines - and would eventually take the market and the media in general from the Gillete Elvgren, George Petty and Alberto Vargas. So through the study of theorists, such as Maria Elena Buszek, will seek to understand how a massification of the image of pin-ups girls, increasingly standardized. Inserted in the consumer industry and also supported by wartime industry, especially with World War II, they would lead what was to be expected of women in the midst of the war: to become strong and to be authentic nationalists, thus building a value patriotic from the feminine image inserted and unified as a symbol of the patriotism and freedom of the American people. In addition to this objective, the role of these women in the implantation of an American national culture and in the process of transformation of intimacy and perception with the body will be mapped, mainly during the peak of the Golden Years, which covers the years 1940 and 1950, a period that also marked the transition from old advertising techniques to a new reality fostered by cultural ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

My work is not about making big declamatory statements. It's about looking around within my home environment and noticing something and thinking about it. At times (it) is noticed by me as I am passing by a storefront window or browsing through a second-hand store. I never have a clue to what I am looking for until I see it and buy it. Many times I will live with the object for years before deciding to use it as part of my art. Yet when I decide to use the object(s) I find it important to understand how they have been used, under used and why they are tossed away and given little notice in our day-to-day lives. In September, I was given Studio 244. Located in Shattuck Hall, Studio 244 was a former women's dressing room for the Theater Department. As soon as I saw it I realized this was "home" to my installation. The opportunity to work in this studio for nine months and to create an environment that would alter the look of the original space was extremely exciting and challenging. I divided the studio into three separate rooms. I built a long, narrow corridor, a tall windowed room (Domestic Goddess Room) and another room which was windowless but bright and cheery (Dressed For Success Room). These three rooms contained objects and texts which gave information to the way many women have lived and continue to live in the institution of home. Life is predicated on change. Many objects and concepts that we once took for granted as part of everyday life either have vanished or now seem destined to disappear. Others should have disappeared but keep popping up in each new generation disguised in new words and new packaging. I am a carrier and conservator of my culture, the good and the bad. As a visual artist I have the opportunity to tell my point of view, my passions and my story within the confines of a space which I have built and created for the sole purpose of saying, "Look at this. Please."