The Male Gaze in Contemporary Art/Reclamation of Craft By Modern Feminists

Post by: Hannah Campbell

I kept having an error posting this (I think because I was logged into my gmail account at the same time?) Anyway, here it is.

I'm interested in exploring the idea of the male gaze and the female body in contemporary art. One artist I'm particularly interested in for a discussion of this topic is the painter Lisa Yuskavage since many critics consider her work to be an anti feminist in that they continue to encourage the male gaze. The female forms in her paintings are treated much like stilllifes, and Yuskavage herself admits that she makes work about what embarrasses her, about what makes her uncomfortable and causes her herself to fall into the "male gaze." (as gleaned from an article by Ann Landi in ARTnews called "Disturbing Beauty." Jan 2004)

What does it mean for a female artist to be creating work that potentially encourages her own subjugation? One can search for the argument that in creating this appearance, she is underhandedly trying to undo it, but I find this conclusion difficult to draw from her work. Perhaps a conclusion can be drawn that she forces the viewer into realizing how much they naturally fall into the male gaze. Yuskavage has been quoted as saying that she only "loads the gun." (I read this in a NY Times article about her.)

Additionally, often discussed along with Yuskavage is the notorious painter John Currin . They're about the same age and both attended Yale at the same time. Their paintings are really similar, but it is interesting to consider whether Currin, a male, can make the same sort of work as the female Yuskavage. And if not, what is his work saying about the modern male gaze?

A potential other topic if the former one does not seem fitting:

Another artist whom I find to deal with issues of the body is Ghada Amer, whom I first became interested in when reading an article about her called "Behind the Veil" in a September 2006 issue of ARTnews entitled "What Makes Art Erotic." I was recently re-confronted with her work in this week's visiting artist lecture with Garth Johnson of extremecraft.com.

Amer works with thread on canvas to simultaneously form and hide or confuse pornographic images of women. The work is interesting in and of itself, but what I find even more interesting is the first uninvited, then uncredited, and finally recognized contributions to her work by male friend and roommate, Reza Farkhondeh (a painter and digital video artist.)

I think potential topics of interest brought up by her work are the male/female collaboration on these feminist creations, issues of religious background and feminist art about the body, and the reclamation of craft by modern feminist art.

Perhaps these too topics could even be combined in a way if I talk about the modern male gaze.

Posted by Hannah Campbell