Post 4- Can you name 5 Women Artists

When it comes to the topic of Art many people in today's society can only name male artists. Why is that? For some reason people can only recall male artist when it comes to art. Artist such as Picasso, Michelangelo, and Leonardo Da Vinchi just to name a few. But, notice how there is not one woman mentioned here. I have to say that I am also guilty prior to having taken art and women, about not knowing any female artist. I have to say the only female artist that I actually knew of was Frida Kahlo which is not that much.

There have been many great female artist. It is such a pity that many do not know this. The five female artist that I want to focus on are. Berth Morisot, Judith Leyster, Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassat, and Emily Mary Osborne. All of these women were very talented and came up with very interesting paintings and it is sad that many people do not know of their work.

I will focus on what is the most logical reason behind the world not knowing about women artist, or not knowing enough about women artist. The simple answer to this is that it has been a male dominated world. And because of this reason. It has been hard for women to climb the ladder so to speak.

Recently I visited the Brooklyn Museum and it just made me have a stronger appreciation for the work of women. There seemed to be more pieces in the museum that were done by men but, I definitely found a lot of artwork done by women and they were all good. But, because women art seems to not be as heavily promoted as male art that would be why I did not know about many pieces made by women.

As we have discussed throughout the majority of this class, women at one point did not have many rights. They were a minority. Women did not have much of a say in several matters. Women as mentioned throughout the course were thought of as sex objects for men and they were expected to stay at home and take care of the house and raise the kids, referencing this back to my semester project which is entitled The Sexualization of Women to Promote media.

As previously mentioned there were several women artist that had talent, but it seems that they failed to be recognized because of the norms that were placed in society at the time. Which were that women could not be in field  like the arts, even when women were in the arts there were other mediums that they could not be in or participate in because it was considered higher art. But I feel that even though women are "equal" to men today there are still various people that still do not have a respect for the work that women do.

The first artist that I want to focus on is Berth Morisot. Berth Morisot was a painter from France and an Impressionist. One of her pieces that we studied in class were Mother and Sister of the Artist. One of Berth's pieces is actually in the Brooklyn Museum so when I first saw it and I saw the artist I knew that It just had to be in the post. The piece is called Madame Boursier and her daughter.


Berth Moristot, Mother and Sister of the Artist

http://www.cgfaonlineartmuseum.com/morisot/morisot7.jpg







Madame Boursier and her Daughter
(This piece is in Brooklyn Museum)

http://cdn2.brooklynmuseum.org/images/opencollection/objects/size3/29.30_reference_SL1.jpg


The second artist that I want to talk about is Mary Cassat in class we studied her piece which is called Woman in Black at the Opera. Mary was an American print maker and painter. She was also an impressionist. I just want to talk a little bit about this piece. Woman in BLack at the Opera. The woman is in black because she is out in public and does not want to be seen, she is also without man so she definitely does not want to be seen but if you analyze the picture closely you will see that a male is looking at her from across the opera. He basically has the look on his face why are you here without a man how dare you.  So through this little example you can see how hard it must have been for women back then.







Mary Cassat, Woman in Black at Opera,1857

 http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/forum/cassattopera.jpg


The third artist that I want to focus on is Artemisia Gentileschi. This is also a very interesting artist and we studied a couple of her pieces throughout the semester but I particularly want to focus on her painting of Susana and the Elders.  Referencing this to my semester project we see how women were exploited, clearly Susana is uncomfortable with the elders watching her in this piece but woman were thought of a beautiful, desirable, and attractive so the men in this piece want to take advantage of her. And while Susana is beautiful and desirable this painting supports the idea that women are just sex objects for the pleasure for men.This correlates with the idea of women being made to be in subjection to the man which Berger points out in his paper.


Artemisia Gentileschi, Susana and the Elders,1610

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Susanna_and_the_Elders_(1610),_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg

The fourth artist that I want to talk about is Judith Leyster. She made the painting a woman sewing by candlelight. In this painting the woman is sewing while the kids are playing and it is by a fireplace with the children playing around. So in this painting we see how women were thought of as the caretaker the one who looks after and raises the kids while the husband is of working and making a living and this is what was expected from  woman.

 
 Judith Leyster, Woman sewing by candlelight, 1880

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_QaYSpWuuT3oM42_UJhDvjLav2ySe-MDBjCJlJH_aEArNtiDaQiedp5Wj1gBK-q_OkTIr_TbGF_25ADxNHjcLU_0ho4qei51QUFPrPhX0E2ecsrzgpsDTWEBhGbvKA4Hg1L9wNHOnEY/s1600/Woman+Sewing+by+Candlelight,+Judith+Leyster+1633.jpg

The fifth and final artist that I want to talk about is Emily Mary Osborn. She made the piece which is entitled nameless and friendless and I particularly like this piece. In this piece she is out in public and she is with a child most likely her own and she is trying to sell her art. You see a lot of male onlookers in the background and by the look on their faces you can sense the disapproval and intensity of the piece. She is a woman and she is out in public by herself and she is not with a man so all the men are like, "what are you doing."






Emily Mary Osborne- Nameless and Friendless, 1857

http://www.mystudios.com/women/klmno/osborn_nameless.jpg


In conclusion, I enjoy how all of the artist I choose and the paintings that I chose from them all fit together to describe the reason behind people cannot name five female artist and the reason behind all of that was the fact that women had no rights at one point women were not allowed to go outside without a man or own land let alone make art so obviously whatever amazing work they made was going to be discredited for the simple fact that they were women. If you were to go to the Brooklyn Museum you will find a lot of pieces made by women that were good and they really have a story behind them, as all artwork does. All art has a story to it just like the paintings I selected for this piece show the struggle that women had to put up with. Something that should just be put out there is that art has no gender and gender does not define the quality of an art piece. I named but a few women artist throughout history, five to be exact but, there are A LOT more.