This thesis explores aspects of contemporary women's painting practice. It investigates cultural, geographical, social and pictorial space across representations of class, gender and race. It begins with an examination of modernist histories through the language of paint. Modernist codes of sexual and cultural difference are interrogated and disrupted allowing for alternative readings of gender, culture, race and painting practices. I examine concepts of space and time found in modernist and postmodemist theory. I propose strategies in paint that collapse boundaries and categorisations, creating a space in-between canonical meaning and definitions allowing for oscillating feminine positions and perspectives. This research focuses on two women painters as case studies - the African-American painter Ellen Gallagher and the Pakistani-born, American-based painter Shahzia Sikander. Selected works from their practice are analysed alongside my own painting practice where links are established and variances highlighted, thus reflecting a contemporary understanding of women's painting in a global context. Significantly my thesis proposes feminist strategies in painting whereby cross-cultural exchange and multiple visual strategies are employed to signify new terms and conditions for contemporary women's painting. I examine hybridity and its relationship to feminine painted space where the complexities of cultural identity are interrogated. I conclude by analysing the position of contemporary women's painting within the framework of the global exhibition. This research uses a feminist methodology and works across art practice, art theory and art history. It creates a space from which contemporary women's painting can be understood as a materially and theoretically expanded practice.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:695399 |
Date | January 2013 |
Creators | Clancy, Majella |
Publisher | Ulster University |
Source Sets | Ethos UK |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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