Essay on Art and Gender (topic given in instractions)

On Art and Gender (topic given in instractions) - Essay Example This meant that nakedness was in the beholder’s eye. Further, the woman was blamed for everything experienced and thus she was made a subservient of the man as a punishment (Berger 47). The idea of women being made as objects to be stared at was worsened during the renaissance period, where the moment of shame dominated. The Nudes directed the shame more at the viewer rather than at each other. With time, the shame was used as a display of some kind. Though secular subjects were in use, Nudes still maintained the implication that women were aware of being gazed at. Consequently, they were not naked in their personal right, rather as naked in the eyes of men. According to Jones, another factor of Western Modernity that made it difficult for women to establish themselves as artists is seen in Berger’s illustration of the average oil paintings of the Nude, where the key character was never painted; the male spectator of whom everything had been accomplished. The European c onvention of not painting women’s body hair was symbolic. To them, hair symbolized passion and power, yet males perceived that these were their features. This contributed to women’s sense of inferiority and thus they lacked the motivation to become artists (Jones 230). Other factors which made it difficult for women to establish themselves as artists in western modernity Linda Nochlin reveals the failure of art and how the Western male viewpoint affected the establishment of women as artists. She refers to John Stuart Mill’s concept of how he viewed male domination as a major source of social injustice. Nochlin bases her argument that white male subjectivity was a factor that undermined women progress. Since men perceived themselves as superior, they focused on more noticeable art works and disregarded any effort made by women. Research with talented women in art work demonstrates that internal barriers also limited women to establish themselves as artists. The way women were raised and the cultural biases they experienced led to such barriers and lack of developing the belief in self, essential for a determination to highly creative work. In fact, some women remained in the background, in undesirable positions, as enforcers of other people’s ideas (Johnson 245). Creative potential in a number of women may be associated to lower-profile work. As men produced great works of art, most talented women made unconscious or conscious decisions to implement such men’s work. Women with art potentials, who had the capability to capitalize on this prospective in their work always portrayed single-minded purpose, made hard choices regarding their lives, and lacked support systems to help them come out. Another limiting factor to women’s establishment was societal-based. Such factors influenced or became an obstruction to women development in art. Nochlin wonders why there are no great women artists. From her analysis of women achi evements in art, she illustrates that great art by women was often underrated or disregarded in history (Nochlin 161). Further, research shows that though rational stimulation in homes tended to play a key role in the advancement of art, most women were not practically motivated or even permitted to involve in intellectual pursuits by their peers or families. They were traditionally offered less education than their male counterparts, and the society