Art History and Art Criticism Cultural identity Gender Feminism
Women in art has been a subject that has been present throughout most of the course of history, however, over these years, the object of the woman has changed in social, cultural and political meaning. Nowadays, modern-contemporary artists have been known to ‘attack’ the traditional values of women that more historical art has held – a meaning that depicted the woman as an object, rather than a being; a submissive figure, rather than a dominant one. Two examples of artists that have represented and conveyed socio-gender issues through art are Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman, whom, both by using various forms of print media such as photography have challenged and questioned the dominant ‘male’ influences in art, society and on women in general. ... Krugers work addresses the cultural representations of power, identity and sexuality, and challenges the spectacles of stereotypes and clichés. ... Because the female body is so matter of fact in its objectification and commoditisation that it has become one of the oldest cliché’s in advertising and through Kruger’s work of often violent imagery of the female form has exposed viewers of her work to the fact that we are spectators of our bodies as they become carriers for and that are transmuted by gender illustrations of social location and inequality. ... With regards to You are not Yourself and its connection with gender issues and feminism, Kruger has successfully managed to create a work that invokes a sense of terror or alarm. ... Like Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman’s works are also heavily related around the concept of gender issues in society and feminism. ... When she initially began to explore her ideas and concepts, it was at a time when the art world was just beginning to focus on the relationship between the existence of a mass media society and how the implements of this society such as television, film, and photography could be used to further reinforce and redefine the icons of the rapidly expanding popular culture.