I like boring things. |
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin
(I’m going to put this here because at the site I found it, I thought it too difficult to read with the background and font text.)
“Why have there been no great women artists?” The question tolls reproachfully in the background of most discussions of the so-called woman problem. But like so many other so-called questions involved in the feminist “controversy,” it falsifies the nature of the issue at the same time that it insidiously supplies its own answer: “There are no great women artists because women are incapable of greatness.”
A bit of a rant
Now, first of all, I haven’t been updating in so long because I’m quite busy with school. Second of all, I need to make this update because I am absolutely furious and frustrated about this issue. Google has recently deemed Femme Femme Femme as ‘inappropriate’. This blog is a wonderful art blog, celebrating the female form in art. Google saw that many of the works posted are of nude women so it unrighteously slapped this term on it! This blog is unique in its way that it celebrates all sorts of female body shapes in contrary to the the mass of fashion blogs that are posting nothing but gazelle-like, woman with thin stem-like legs and endless limbs. Personally, I am a fan of these women, they’re so unnatural in their presence and amazingly elegant (though not all..) but I also love women who seem to have stepped right out of a Rembrandt.
Rubens – Three Graces
And why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I love their cellulite? Why can’t I be proud of my flabby arms, my stubby legs and my non-existing breasts that are such a big contrast with my full thighs? I feel that Femme Femme Femme is such a wonderful relief compared to our Special K commercials and anti-ageing ads and I feel cheated and personally offended that it has been flagged with inappropriate content! Oi, let’s celebrate the female body here then?
Eduard J. Steichen – In Memoriam
I absolutely love how this photo makes the female body something abstract and how everything here revolves around the composition rather than anything else.
Though quite unrealistic I feel that Cranach really understands the elegance of women.
This sketch by Klimt is actually called ‘fat woman seen in frontal aspect’. Here you can see that woman who are deemed ‘fat’ can also be gorgeous.
Another gorgeous Klimt sketch.
These are the works I think about when I think of a great use of female nude in art.
Nike of Samothrace
I am developing a tiny obsession with Greek & Roman myths and especially the Gods appearing in it! I’ve recently stared reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses and despite never having a full interest herein and initially expecting myself to get bored of it quite soon I am completely addicted and I’ve stared Googling like mad (my favourite pas time, I must say!). So I decided to share my all-time favourite sculpture since I haven’t updated in such a long time.
Here’s a wonderful hymn to Nike, the Greek godess of victory:
Orphic Hymn 33 to Nike (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
“To Nike (Victory), Fumigation from Manna. O powerful Nike, by men desired, with adverse breasts to dreadful fury fired, thee I invoke, whose might alone can quell contending rage and molestation fell. ‘Tis thine in battle to confer the crown, the victor’s prize, the mark of sweet renown; for thou rulest all things, Nike divine! And glorious strife, and joyful shouts are thine. Come, mighty Goddess, and thy suppliant bless, with sparkling eyes, elated with success; may deeds illustrious thy protection claim, and find, led on by thee, immortal fame.”
This is by far my favourite Greek sculpture! Oh, I still remember when I first saw it! It was -rather cheesily put- as if time stopped for me and all I could do was stare with an open mouth. It’s as if this marble Nike is about to fly off into some mysterious Greek myth, suddenly come alive and be the most gorgeous woman of all times. Even is she is headless! She seems completely weightless and so full of life and energy, I could stare at this all day! Aaah, I need to visit the Louvre one of these days!