1. What would I look like if I
would get painted??
STEPHANIE RAMIREZ
ART AND WOMEN FALL 2011

2. Art and Women teaches us how male artists
have depicted the female gender through paintings.
The male gaze is a system in art where men paint the
female nude as an object for other men to gaze upon,
making them the “male owner spectator”, painting
women as posing objects and not as the human
beings that they are. Men concentrated only on the
female body without use of action or resistance.
How about the women of color? For they
weren’t the first choice when it came to painting the
female body. How do male artists display their image
of the colored female body?

3. (Painting Below) “Olympia”, Edouard
Manet, 1863
(Painting above) “Lady Elizabeth Murray and
Dido Belle Lindsay”, unknown artist, 1779

4.  “Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle Lindsay” – What
does this painting display at first glance??
 The two girls are actually cousins
 Dido Belle Lindsay although raised by the same family
she was not allowed into the social society
 When guests were invited she could not eat at the table
 “Olympia” – the African American woman is clearly the
maid and she is looking directly at the white woman
while she lies there nude.
 At first glance viewers automatically look at the female
nude

5. Paul Gauguin’s Primitives
“Two Tahitian Women”,
“Te Arii Vahine Aka The Kings Wife”, 1896
1899

6.  Gauguin was a French, Post-Impressionist artist. His
paintings of Tahitian women represent violence and
control. Replay the unequal relationship of the male
artist and female model in the inequalities of the
white male artist’s relationship to native women.
Paintings bind women to nature , the male gaze looks
down on them. (Chadwick pg. 290)
 A majority of Gauguin’s collection of Tahitian the
women were always surrounded by fruits.
 Women were considered PRIMITIVE

7. OUR FEMALE VIEW
Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait as wounded Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, “When I am
deer”, 1946 not here / Estoy Alla”, 1994

8.  Frida painted this self-portrait after the failed attempt to
operate her back in New York; expresses her disappointment
after the operation on her spine
 The deer is surrounded by trees and trapped, interpreting
Frida’s desperation and frustration to have a successful
operation
 Frida Kahlo was not able to bear children after her accident,
she had attempted a few times each failing; being robbed from
the opportunity of motherhood was also expressed in her
artwork
 Maria Magdalena Campos-Pon, illustrates a depiction of
women living through motherhood with the two milk bottles
right above the breasts. In my opinion this particular painting
represents breast feeding

9. (above)
Judy Baca,
“The Great
Wall of Los (left) Marta Maria Perez-
Angeles”, Bravo, “Protection”, 1990.
1976-1984.

10.  Judy Baca: The People’s History Mural illustrating the
dustbowl migration of the 1930s.
 Thousands fled to California after severe drought &
economic hardship.
 The image of the mother and children fleeing in my
opinion represents once again motherhood, courage,
and family. The mother is wearing a bandana that
covers half of her face: she looks fearless and
determined
 Perez-Bravo’s artwork were mostly photographs of
herself taken by her husband in specific situations that,
“explore feminine identity and the condition of being
female in ways that counter patriarchally constructed
stereotypes of womanhood” (Chadwick, 428).

11. So…What would I look like if I would get painted??
Alice Neel, “Pregnant Maria”, 1964

12. Bibliography
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames
& Hudson. New York. 2007. Fourth Edition.
“Frida Kahlo – Self-portrait as wounded deer (1946)”.
Found on Flicker.com. 03 December 2011.
“Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle Lindsay”. Found
on a Blog – Pauline’s Pirates and Privateers. 03
December 2011.