500 Years of Women in Art
June 3, 2007 @ 11:23 pm | Filed under: Art
Was mesmerized by this at my hubby’s blog. He got it from Charlottesville Words. I imagine it’ll be making the rounds, because it’s fascinating.
One thing that struck me was how you get to the twentieth century and the dehumanizing begins. It was strange to feel so repelled by that, because I have always found cubism and abstract art to be interesting and often quite beautiful or striking. Something about seeing the fracturing happen in this progression, after so many lovely images celebrating the female face and form, is a shock to the sensibilities—perhaps a taste of what a shock those styles of painting were to the audiences who first viewed them.
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Laurel says:
Wow! Thanks for the beautiful trip through history….I recognized alot of them, but was far more amazed at the technical skills to put something like that together!
I, too, was a bit taken back with the more modern stuff; although I’ve seen alot of it, I guess the movement of the faces onscreen gave the images more impact.
I’ll take the Impressionists and Renaissance painters anyday!
On June 4, 2007 at 2:52 am
Karen E. says:
I once read a very interesting bio of Picasso, which noted that when he was in love with a woman, he painted her in a beautiful, realistic style (and his realism is amazing and gorgeous) but when the relationships fell apart, he painted the women in violent, disjointed ways.
Perhaps that is a microcosm of what has happened in art in general, and also of what has happened to the view of women in our world ….
On June 4, 2007 at 5:54 am
Theresa says:
I saw this at Scott’s blog and sat and watched it for the longest time! It really is mesmerizing.
On June 4, 2007 at 6:49 pm
jen McE says:
Those disjointed ‘dehumanized’ works are probably more of a progression in art movements than anything to do with womankind. being an artist I know that once you have mastered rendering a photo realistic image the only way to go is simple.
deconstruct the shapes into their simplest forms and you can see the progression in the montage if you look closely.
The photo realism of the preraphealite painters to the wistful hints of the impressionist painters to the very basic linear view of the cubist movement.
Awesome video to watch, I loved it.
On June 5, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Maria says:
Should be required viewing in all history and sociology classes…
A lesson in “how we view women” all in 3 minutes…WOW!
On June 9, 2007 at 11:38 am
Beate says:
I don’t believe women were any less dehumanized by society 500 years ago – in fact I’d say that they largely depended on men to give them any status they had. Women were not considered created in the image of God. The video is beautifully done, though 🙂
On June 10, 2007 at 9:01 am