Silvy Matos
01/28/2020
Art and Women
Blog Mini Post
Yolanda Lopez
There are
many inspiring feminist artists that have invested their time and money
creating magnificent art pieces, not for a pass time, but to make a change in
this world. Although all feminine artists are unique in their own perfect way
an artist that truly intrigues me is Yolanda Lopez. Lopez represents a
population of Chicana feminists; she is a conceptual artist that uses her
artwork to challenge political and social corruptible beliefs. Through her
paintings, Yolanda Lopez, defies stereotypical modes of Latino/a/x
representations, and she challenges these ideas by creating new ideas of
gender, race and cultural identity.
The
majority of her famous artwork pieces focus on the life and hardships a Mexican
woman goes through. Lopez was born in 1942, in San Diego, California. She was 1
of 3 daughters in a family in which she was raised by her mother and her
grandparents in part from her mother’s side. Growing up in the United States
she came to realize the racial stereotypes in the country, through her paintings
she wanted to defy these ideas of Mexican women and portray the truth of being
a Chicana. Lopez is famously known for her groundbreaking series of the Virgin
of Guadalupe in diverse political views.
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| Yolanda Lopez, Portrait of the Artist as the Virgen of Guadalupe,1978. |
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| Yolanda Lopez, Margaret F. Stewart:Our Lady of Guadalupe,1978. |
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| Yolanda Lopez, Guadalupe:Victoria F. Franco,1978. |
In Mexican culture the Virgin of Guadalupe is a very famous
well-known religious figure that is associated with motherhood, feminism,
social justice, and more. Lopez creates a series of paintings of her family in
this case, her mother, her grandmother, and herself with the background of the
virgin of Guadalupe painting. It is a way to state to Mexican women that
although religion is very important, they need to start praising themselves as
females, workers, etc. To represent Mexican women as powerful figures that can make
their own decisions and fight for their desires. The goal of these painting was
to show Chicanas around the world that they do not need to adapt to certain
things because it is viewed in such a way for Mexicans. Through these painting
Lopez was trying to honor the female working class, all kinds of women no
matter their age, and powerful women. Women in society are usually viewed as
weak compared to men and Lopez wanted to change that. This can be seen through
the way she paints the physique of the women body with strong muscular legs. She
wants primarily through her work to help Mexican women fight against oppressive
social shame that in previous years have limited women to express their
personal/ political beliefs and morals. Through her series she shows how her
family generations of women members have changed throughout the years. Her
grandma has fought all her life and is now at peace with herself, her mother
worked all her life to give her daughters a great life, and in the last series
we see Lopez leaping and grabbing the serpent by the neck which represents all
the work her previous generations went through to give her the life she has and
help her spread her wings to accomplish all her goals. As for the serpent she
is grabbing by the neck it may represent society and people holding her back
and she won’t allow it.
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