Throughout the history of art, the representations of women have been one of the central themes of art practice, often distorting and appropriating the image of women to provide pleasure for men, in both directions of creating and viewing the artwork. When the term “the male gaze” was introduced by British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, it referred to the entire spectrum of objectification of female bodies and their voluntary or involuntary subjection to the act of observing, coming from a male counterpart, which as a social phenomenon that occurs not only in visual culture is effectively contained and explained through the analysis of the male-dominated art history. As a part of the inheritance of patriarchal structure, it has not only omitted many of the female artists throughout the centuries of art practice, condemning them to being obliterated and overlooked and thus inhibiting the natural progress of continuation of female artists upon the legacy of the previous generations, but it also reconfirmed the position of a woman in the society, presenting her as an object that is to be looked upon, and thus it created a set of norms that encourages further objectification of the female body. It is used as a tool of visual culture that would soon evolve from the paintings of academic nudes to the hyper-sexualised advertisements, feeding of consumerism and manipulated sexuality, but the core principles of idealisation and degrading decorative purpose of women for either aesthetic formalities or commercial success remains essentially unchanged, as it asserts the values that are preferred within the society, and thus they are, regardless whether they are directed towards female or male audience, forcing their demands and standards of physical appearance and behaviour upon the female individuals as the examples that are rewarded and desirable.
Feminist theory examined the social structures from the perspective that includes points of perspective that have not been heard before the initiatives of the consciousness-raising movements, including feminism and its conflict with the established men-centred architecture of the society. It analyses the stratification and inequalities that are results of the inherent principles of patriarchal society applied to women –discrimination, objectification, oppression and stereotyping. It focuses on how the women’s experiences differ from men’s in a society that has through the generations created norms of gender, their roles and features, and the system that grades these standards, to reward them or to punish them by invalidation or shame-inducing blame. The dualistic division between the female and the male in terms of characteristics asserts their intellectual and practical abilities, regarding the female as the other, lesser and weaker than the male, bounding them to lower expectations of society that confined in the area of existence that is appropriate for the normative.
Born in the context of the social movements of the 1960s and the early 70s, based especially the second wave feminism, the aim of feminist art was to create a dialogue between the artwork and the viewer, leading their attention towards the social issues and the questions about the oppressive structure, hoping to awake awareness of the inequalities that would induce the changes that the movement itself was struggling to provoke. Many of the artists that are associated with the term feminist used untraditional materials and new methods of creation, including the techniques that had been under-appreciated due to their association with female craft and use of the new media that did not have the canonised history that had been dominated and determined by white male artists. The innovative practice that involved performance, conceptual art, video and photography, textile and fiber art was a key force in the development of contemporary art, as it expanded art in terms of the media used and, more importantly, it demonstrated that art can be deeply involved with the issues of the society, transcending the aesthetic to engage in a debate that would hopefully commence a change that would benefit the humanity as a whole.
The involvement of the body was crucial in the feminist art as the act of reclaiming their own identity, where what has been objectified by men is now a tool for creation and an essential subject of the work, confusing the established division that associates the mind with the male, and the body with the female, reducing her entire being onto her physique. It appears in the whole range of subtle representation to radical explicitness, as an entity or in fragmentations, charged symbolically or sexually, and it is usually conditioned to articulate a personal experience that can broaden to encompass the universal state of being a woman in the world dominated by men. For ages the female body has been modified for the male gaze and the visual satisfaction of their vain libidos, idealised to represent the perfect point between the erotic and the purely untouched, creating a cognitive dissonance of unrealistic expectations and requirements that spur the system of values based on the standardised physical appearance and the female ability to provide sexual pleasure while inhibiting her own. Feminist art aims to liberate the body from the control of the patriarchal system, assigning it a new political and artistic role that is the direct demonstration of the feminist ideas, exposing the issue-based topics through the including of the personal.
Photography has been embraced as the medium that has the versatile ability to capture an either staged or a genuine moment in time, including its capacity to document performative piece, along side with video art. It can present the body in its full natural glory of imperfections, breaking away from the limitations of beauty standards, or it can convey a message through a set of arranged details or the controlled scene, such as in the works of Hannah Wilke or Cindy Sherman, who address the modern position of the women, seen through the lenses of popular culture and domesticity. The work of Ana Mendieta borders between photography and performance, using the body in the visuals to emphasise the connection between the physical body, the mind and the soul with nature, as the essential inborn occurrence in human existence that is forgotten due to the patriarchal values that detach an individual from their roots. Her work points out the corrupted aspect of the society, including the offences such as rape, alluding to the aggression and violence of perverted sexual drives, that often originates in the general air of hostility and unfulfilled natural needs. She also presents female sexuality as a healthy phenomenon that is directly involved with nature and its processes, with visuals reminiscent of the ancient rituals and magical power of the original human experience.
The feminine sensuality has often been connected with the mystery of life through the capability to provide and sustain life, visually contained in the symbols of vulvas and uteri. The Dinner Party is possibly the most popular feminist artwork, as it features a table prepared for the company of mythological and women from history, with elaborate plates painted and arranged in shapes of female genitalia. The symbolics of vulva range from the reaffirming and embracing the female sexuality and the demonstration of sexual liberation, as well as the breaking of the taboos of nudity and the automatic sexualisation of certain body parts, to the fundamental presentation of the female experience. The female nude can in this context support multiple aims and claims, as it either emphasises the female sexuality as a naturally occurring force that is voluntarily employed for one’s own pleasure, or it means to present a profoundly human experience that in its wholeness transcends the sexualisation of the naked body, as in the work of Nancy Spero. The imagery continues to appear in different forms through the oeuvre of work aligned with the diverse opinions and ideologies within the feminist movement, sometimes in such transgressive explicitness, as in sexually radical feminism, that it begins to question the nature of pornographic and its appropriation.
The body is also often used as a visual in the context of the household, alluding to the socially imposed confinement within the house to an extent that the two bodies become identifiable with each other and tightly intertwined. The domesticity is seen as one of the main tools of patriarchal arrangement of the family life that debases women through the obligatory chores and under-appreciated, often invisible tasks, using it as a method of limiting and imprisonment, where she is blinded by the comfort of the home and consumeristic, superficial satisfactions that come with being obedient. Semiotics of the Kitchen by Martha Rosler try to disrupt the traditional relationship between the women and the household, how their roles are preconceived and represented and perceived through the popular culture, addressing the issues similarly like Barbara Kruger, who merges the adverting, attention-grabbing style with truth exposing messages, by merging the work of art with the mass video. However, the most extensive project is the installation by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, Womanhouse, from 1972, which completely modified the entire house to illustrate the presence of women, from the kitchen invaded by breast-shaped fried eggs, to laundry room filled with women underwear and stockings, or a menstruation bathroom. Some of the rooms depict the stereotypes of being a woman, such as obsessions with shoes or the desires for marriage and family or are constructed intimate spaces that should compensate for the lack of the personal space that women are given. It is meant to provoke different associations with the home, with the special emphasis on what is usually covered with the veil of a taboo, eliminated from the public display as shameful or disgusting. The uncovering of the physical evidences of menstruating points out the absurdity of being necessarily secretive, as a essential and naturally occurring process, mainly hidden for the comfort of men and their blissful ignorance, exposing the monthly bloody price that is paid for what is considered the gift of bearing children and the economical weight of menstruating. In the similar manner of exposing what is overlooked in the life of a woman, as completely forgotten and erased from the commonly known experience, Mary Kelly reveals the uncomfortable side of motherhood and the parts of the process that are omitted in the romanticising of having children, unveiling the unpleasant material manifestations of infants and the bureaucracy that is required for the creation of new life, all coloured by the ambivalent emotional tones of parenthood and its psychological burden.
In performance art, the performer’s body is not only visually present but it is also in physical connection with the viewer through the shared space and time, which makes it the most unmediated form of interaction with the audience. The body becomes the main device fro the artistic expression, using its capacity of physical endurance that requires even more mental strength and determination. Many feminist artists opted for the performance as their medium due to its effectiveness to convey a strong message, especially concerning the political and social issues, additionally encouraged by its newness and lack of men that would have established it otherwise. In her piece Cut Piece, Yoko Ono deliberately subjects herself to being objectified and gradually turned into an object of sexual desire by giving the power to remove her clothing piece by piece to the audience. Similarly and more controversially, Marina Abramovic in Rhythm 0 invited the viewers to interact with her body with 72 presented objects, enduring the acts that increasingly became more violent and pain afflicting. It depicts the vulnerability of a naked motionless body, the objectification that happens in such exposure, but, more shockingly, it provokes the aggressive frenzy stimulated merely by the lack of punishment for otherwise condemned actions, demonstrating the complexity of the human psyche, asking whether the cruelty that emerges in such moments in innate or acquired. Both of these works present the dehumanising conditions that appear when there is an extreme misbalance in the distribution of power, and the violent tendencies that the superior accepts as the privilege that follows the position of being dominant, which can be seen as the analogy for the patriarchal society that readily abuses the white male power, mercilessly maltreating the weaker, the vulnerable and the afflicted.
The feminist art began the breaking of the structure of the fine art practice and through its transgression, it created a space for the further expansion of the art world, for the wider inclusion of artists of different genders, races and background, demanding equality in being recognised and represented. With the feminist movement, it generated the inducing pressure on the society to question the normative, including the gender roles and beauty standards, and thus it prepared the base for the more complex debates about the social issues that would continue to emerge, for the first time in history providing the women artists with role models that began the fight against the unjust treatments and the still present inequality.
"My artwork shows, with the language of sculpture, the essence of matter and tries to reveal with the work, the hidden life within." –Giuseppe Penone What better way to appreciate nature and the wonders of life than with a simply amazing art sculpture like this? In The Hidden Life Within, Italian artist Guiseppe Penone carves …
When the term Arte Povera was coined in 1968 by the critic Germano Celant, it referred to the art that visually articulated the current protests of the youth against the established institutions that enabled the preservation of the social systems that relied on class and wealth, with inherited elitism and decaying cultural values. In his writing, which would become almost a manifesto of the movement, he advocated the confrontation of the societal arrangement by departure from its favouring of conformity and the importance of financial profit, by returning to more human values and embracing the fluidity of creative processes that did not correspond to the demand of the art market, resulting in an artwork that does not only reject the usual standards of fine art but the entire fine art language as the fundament of the establishment. It replaced the traditional media that have been used for high refinement with the low or mundane materials that had not been associated with the domain of fine art, freeing the artwork from the conventions of thought and form as well, emphasising the experience of the object itself and the pathway of its creation, alluding to the more profound philosophical ideas concerning the relationship with the world and the overall human existence.
The term “poor” is suggested to refer to the mundanity and lowness of the materials that Arte Povera introduces, including their low financial cost and their distance from the richness of the established media, but it also expands into the visual definition of the aesthetics that it prefers. The works often appear to be very minimal in refinement and adornment, presenting themselves in their rawness and simplicity that allows a wider spectrum of conceptual interpretation that lie beneath the material and rejects the growing ideologies that highlight the values of the superficial features, and thus the movement as a philosophical unity is directly confronting the accelerating culture of consumerism as a phenomenon that is obsessed merely with the surface.
An artist as a human that is capable of further innovation in terms of creation and expression is encouraged, almost required, to return to nature and explore it as the main source of inspiration and observe in in order to notice the patterns of the fundamental creative processes. He is supposed to indulge in the exploration of the physical and chemical reactions and relationships within the natural cycles, to learn from them and re-contextualise their beauty and perfect balance through the creation of their own artwork. He notices the ultimate living organism that we live in and yet are so detached from, the form that always contains the same amount of energy that fluctuates through it in changing materialisations and through the constant flow is continues to exist in its fascinating consistency of transformation. The material that the artists opts for is derived from the natural elements and it demonstrates their substance and inherited value that is subtly praised through its unchanged rawness, exposing the beauty that is not manipulated by a human hand, and thus is not corrupted by the aesthetic values that the current art market demands, nor should it seek to present a moral judgement or statement. The seems that the material should merely be arranged in order to be infused with the intended meaning that originates in the fundaments of human nature and the qualities acquired through philosophical insight. The artwork is to identify itself with the naturally occurring events, disguising itself with the environment, becoming the part of the surrounding as the piece the has been altered to convey the idea that has been subtly placed within.
Through this journey the person who creates is no longer bounded by the intellectual or social limitations, for they manage to rediscover their inborn human qualities that have been forgotten in the established structures of the society and its standards of behaviour, that become a confinement that remains almost unnoticeable until one begins to transgress the imposed rules. By the turning away from the modern societal architecture, one is allowed to experience their physical and psychological qualities and abilities more directly and in their fuller potential, with their perception and sensitivity heightened, to receive more of what the world is offering and to be able to understand more profound matters that reach towards the universal values of the human archetype. The artist discovers themselves as an individual that is placed in a very particular place of the entire system of the universe and slowly begins to be aware of the entwining links of causes and events throughout the time and space, evoking their own memory and the collective inheritance of human experience.
The work of art dives into the sphere of time and dissolves in the lack of specific circumstances, aspiring to become timeless and largely comprehensive, transcending the restrictions of the division between the past, the present, and the future. It is the bridge between the intense sense of individualism and the awareness of connection with the entire natural system, and thus the artwork serves as the link between the artist’s intentions and their personal imprint, and the investment in the societal improvement through the quiet social comment, disguised in the mimicry of nature. The thought is hermetical in its simplicity and lack of refinement in its materialisation as if its essence was contained in the golden core that is camouflaged by the raw surface, yet its fluidity alludes the multiplicity of interpretations that rely on individual circumstances and the cooperation of perceptive and imaginative abilities.
There is a rather noticeable aim for the humanitarian, based on what has been worth the contemplation through the millennia of civilisation, rediscovering the fundamental principles of human alignment with nature that have been neglected in the era of economic growth and the ruthlessness of the capital. As an act of revolt against the new cultural standards of superficial, including the current art trends that rely on the popular culture and embrace the extending power of capitalism over the art market, and the general decaying values of the society submerged in consumerism, the artists associated with Arte Povera struggle to defy the demands that would lead to the financial success, renouncing it as such for more profound artistic achievement in terms of genuine expression and freedom.
They revive the philosophical notions of anthropocentrism, emphasising the importance of retrieving the unmediated human experience and the existence that is being cleansed of the modern pollution of instant gratifications. It demands the existential struggle and exploration, the search for the truthful and the never ending experimentation with what the life presents. It asks the questions that have remained without the final answer for centuries, bringing up the past in the cloud of nostalgia and optimistically preparing the elaboration of the future that may potentially prove to be brighter than the present. However, it is faced with the contemporary interpretation of the concept of anthropocentric structure, which condemns everything that is available to the human race to be modified to serve a purpose to a man, and thus to be objectified through becoming utilitarian, culminating in the ruthlessness of man’s exploitative power. Trying to revive the original meaning of the term, it aims to return the human, as a being that skilfully balances between the rational and the emotional, into the metaphorical centre of the universe, addressing the personal growth of consciousness that would benefit not only the individual but the natural system as a whole. The heritage of humanism that it evokes serves as the nostalgic escape from the current societal decadence that voluntarily forgets the warm familiarity of compassion, completely obliterating the painful consolation that comes from being genuinely human.
“Pop Art should be popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and big business.”
Pop Art was born from the newly discovered wonders of the consumer culture and the growing post-WWII economy of the USA, characterised by the sense of optimism for the new technologies and the bright possibilities that the modern future further prepares. The growth of the market created an abundance of everything, with the constant acceleration of the wheel of the demand and production; it filled the supermarkets with an unseen amount of food and domestic items, stacked in rows and rows of colourful packagings and memorable branding. It introduced fashion that changed annually and relied on the consumeristic need to discard the old in order to buy the new, completing the circle of capitalism that was spinning on the transient satisfaction of the shopper and their urge to accumulate and spend. Everything was becoming fast and shiny, extremely attractive and responding to the current need, yet it was all impermanent and awfully replaceable in the next shopping spree. Wealth equalled the amount of objects that have been accumulated, and the post-war relief of anxiety of scarcity turned the insatiable public consumer appetite into an instinct of survival. With instant food and instant gratification, fast commute and improved domesticity, life appeared to be as easy and as pleasurable as ever, concealing the rotten core of consumer culture hidden under the flashy, fabulous surface.
Pop emerged during the 50s, with the beginning go the consumer boom, closely following its development to flourish during the 60s, and by its active involvement with the current society and their interest, most of the works appear to be very ambiguous about their stance in the whole craze of the consumer culture. It is an ironic glorification of what was deemed to be a very American lifestyle, derived from the American dream and their ideals, that might hide a social critique of the decadence and materialism, by acting from within the cultural phenomenon itself. It relies on the appropriation of the popular culture and its visual language, and thus it blurs the line between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, eventually merging them into one, asking additional questions about the nature of fine art itself, including the matters of originality and artists genius. It draws the imagery from the mass produced media and television, responding to the fascination of the public and their ideals, mimicking the methods of advertisement and visual branding, and thus it becomes so tightly tied to the popular culture that it both financially and as an idea feeds and grows from it.
The growing accessibility of the television and mass media fed the culture that developed a need for personas that represented the American dream, and such were the celebrities like actors, musicians or politicians that were the embodiment of wealth and success. The celebrity begins to appear not as a person, but as an object that is to be visually consumed and worshipped at the same time, creating a contradictory objectification where the person is both elevated into the divine plane and reduced to a commodity of entertainment. The artists of Pop Art respond to these new obsessions and drew from the imagery and stories that came out in tabloids, strongly reflecting the changes of the culture and popular interest. The repeating images of Marilyn Monroe serve as the best example, for there is a great amount of media accumulated material of her, presenting her merely as a sex symbol, always publicly attacked and analysed. Some of her images were repurposed into art, since she is the ultimate icon of the celebrity cult, that would eventually become a victim of all the fame that surrounded her. Gold Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol from 1962, a silkscreen print of her photograph on gold canvas, presents her as an icon inspired by popular culture with the religious undertones of the Byzantine saints in gold. She is printed in obnoxious colours, alluding to her treatment in the media, her objectification and dehumanised status of a celebrity, isolated in the abundance of reflective golden wealth, as if all the glory and fame still left her terribly alone. It opens up the matter of identity, or how the public image shapes the idea of one’s being, leading to the conclusion that this print cannot ever represent the real Marilyn Monroe since her true person was never known or even seen. Similarly, another artwork of his featuring her portrait is Marilyn Diptych from1962, made after her suicide, partially immortalising her person in the form of art, but at the same time creating a repetitive, emotionally flattened reproduction of her face, further alluding to the lack of humanity of public exploitation and reduction of a person into a image of the glorified ideal that is to be consumed in its quantity, regardless of the quality.
He readily conformed to the rising phenomenon of the celebrity cult, that grew with the availability of the mass media, not only by creating his work in the accord with it but also by expanding the persona of an artist, into the re-creation of himself into a celebrity. It has been suggested that the best work of Andy Warhol was Andy Warhol himself, for his person was as strategically crafted for the public as his work was, and would become as iconic as his screen prints. His ambiguity about his work and the consumerism that he was surrounded by is still debated, but his awareness of the superficiality of the society leaves an abundant space for the critique that is hidden under the surface of the artwork and not as easily accessible as the visuals of the particular artwork.
The work of Lichtenstein appears to restrain from open objectification of women, but through its depictions of modern life banalities that can be reduced to one image from the comic book, he confirms the stereotype of a superficial, vain and naïve woman, slightly neurotic and emotionally unstable, that has been presented as the ideal that is wanted despite or even entirely because of her lack of intellectual depth.
Much of the artwork created within Pop Art, including the screen prints of Warhol or Oldenburg’s food sculptures, follows the concept of the American dream of assessing the kitchen as the locus of the household and the idealised family life, resulting in visual focus on the food items, especially branded processed food that is an essential part of the consumer democracy. However, it is directly connected with the public image of the woman that is seen as the major buyer of the kitchen related products, and thus her place in the ideal social structure is instantly associated with the household, particularly the kitchen, as it is clearly seen in the innumerable pieces of advertisement featuring a happy family. The patriarchy is however modernised in the outburst of the home improvements and the new demands that are cast upon the women in order to reach the American ideal, in both attitude and physique, where now the confinement in the household appears to full of excitement about the improvements and time-saving appliances, that goes hand in hand with fashion magazines and beauty routines. This image of the perfect American home is presented clearly in the collage from 1956 by Richard Hamilton, a British Pop artist, simply titled Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?. His distance from the actual American life supposedly enabled the critique of the lifestyle that it stood for, as this work appears to be highly satirical, with its appropriated mass media content, put into a different context. it shows an ideal modern home, with new electronics for the newly available amount of information, practical appliances, canned food and popular forms of entertainment, but also with the figures that live in such a contemporary house. The hyper-sexualised specimens represent the ideal body forms and their positions, where the male is highly dominant and confident, while the female is in a position that is more passive, yet still exhibitionistic in the emphasis of her nudity. It leads to the conclusion that the idealised features are solely limited to the physical appearance that is exaggerated to the limits of pornographic, alluding to the commercial side of sexuality and sex. Additionally, there is a distinction between the central female figure and the background one with the vacuum cleaner, since they present the polarities of the ideal woman, separating what could be seen as the sex symbol and the perfect housewife.
Sex is becoming depersonalised and it is no longer seen as an act that is a physical climax of an emotional bond, intimacy or mutual trust, but is merely a commodity that is being sold in order to be bought, to satisfy the natural sexual desire which has been amplified in a way to respond to the exaggerated sexual object that has been offered.
Pop inherited the morals of the neoliberal capitalism and advertisement, where the potential consumer is attracted by the visuals through the strategical choice of the elements featured in the commercial. The influence is particularly seen in the work of artists who directly reference or appropriate advertisement, especially the kind that is was meant for the male part of the consumer body, featuring the idealised sex symbols, using the male libido and its visual satisfaction to sell a commodity. This practice soon identifies the female used in the image with the object that is being sold, so she is additionally objectified not only by the male gaze but also by her new commercial value. She becomes a passive part of the market, just like the sex that hypothetically comes with the purchased object, satisfying the male ego by demonstrating that the particular commodity comes also with the pleasuring of their sexuality. Such objectification that mirrors advertisement in an even more exaggerated manner is fundamental in the works of Mel Ramos, whose paintings step into what is seen as pornographic, where the highly idealised female nude is not even juxtaposed with the advertised product, but is placed inside it or accompanies it. However, the perverse nature of the paintings is not only in their explicitness, but also in the realisation that what is considered to be an appropriate advertisement borders so closely with pornography, both visually and morally.
Similarly, some of the paintings of Tom Wesselmann use the commercial techniques of
nonchalantly sprinkling sex on everything, as if it came with everything, from cigarettes to the idea of the American dream, to later on, further reduce everything to impersonal, anonymous nudes, with eager smiles and open legs.
Some of the female artists that have been active during the era of Pop have been associated with the term, mainly based on their visual styles that corresponded to the time. However, they have a dose of a social critique that is more direct than the ambiguousness of their male contemporaries, which separates them from the name of Pop and the values that it stands for. One of the most prominent, or the most popular female artists is Marjorie Strider who created three-dimensional breasts or other eroticised body parts coming out of canvas that obviously violate the plane, directly addressing the manner in which the exposed female bodies in the advertisement or Pop tradition obstruct the rest of the content as they become the focus of the gaze, and yet due to their constant presence and repetition, they have become a canonical part of the imagery, difficult to see critically. The work of Evelyne Axell, a Belgian painter, visually follows the pleasurable imagery of Pop, erotically charged, responding to the optimistic hedonism of the era through the female eyes. Similarly to Hamilton, Martha Rosler created photomontages that addressed the issues within the society, especially politics regarding the position of the American woman and the male gaze, for example in Vacuuming Pop Art. Much of these artists responded to the raising awareness of the feminists about the objectifying male gaze and the objectified, eroticised female gaze, the use of sexuality in advertisement and the issues of body image. It is debatable if these artists even belong to Pop Art, or if they expand it in the direction that has been quite unknown and remains unpopular, compared to the male dominated canonic part of Pop, but they certainly demonstrate that the similar visuals can conceptually differ, assessing that the essence of Pop itself does not lie in its surface, despite its insisting that only the superficial is what matters.
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