A Few Thoughts on Representation of the Female in Art

I've been thinking a lot about the structural ideologies that underpin gender stereotyping.

A good representation of this is through art.

When designing posters for KentFeminista, I was taking images that perceive "femininity" to fade and incorporate into the image.



These were nice graphics that can be incorporated into a hegemonic image, both modern and historic concepts.

However, there are several artists I feel really incorporate ubiquitous femininity in their work.

The first is Salvador Dali.

In particular, I am a big fan of his women-with-drawers concepts.



Not only do they provide a stunning metaphor, but there is the delightful concept of hidden secrets, depths, function and asthetics that comprise within a woman's role.

There are some delightful plays on this concept which combine the metaphors with more traditional images;



This helps to explore and challenge the physical and metaphorical concepts of the female form, and of the gender identity within society.

However, to take this one step further, I think that the metaphorical concepts of gender stereotyping can be explored even more through art.

Marcus Harvey, well known for Britpack Art in the 1990s, manages to truly encompass the one dimensional woman that feminity has become in the 21st century. His work, which borders on pornographic, is of gradiose size and created with great handsweeps of paint, that symbolise the pawing and attention given to the female figure which control and coerce the woman to become a physical object, a commodity and valuable only for image. I would suggest reviewing "Like What You See? Call Me" at the Saatchi Gallery, but it is not work safe and I won't post it on here.

It was probably reviewing modern art in the 1996 Sensations exhibition that really made me question the perceptions of the female form in my teenage years. Suddenly the images of Georgia O Keiffe and Picasso took on a new interpretation in my mind and I began to question these representations of male and female.

Lastly, I would like to refer to another Dali. This sculpture, for me, underpins the true structural ideologies of not only feminism, but the repression of patriarchy and hegemonic relationships established in modern society.



The concept of the maiden, the vulnerable virgin, the commodity of the gold tinted phallus on the unicorn and the truely empowering penetration of time are as symbolic a representation as can be found of the true nature of the relations between the sexes and the embedded nature of gender identity that feminists have fought for years and still not won.