Women Empowerment/Strength
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter. She was recognized as one of the first known female painter to paint nude self-portraits. Her life was cut short at the age of 31 when she died due to a postpartum embolism. During her time as a female artist she focused on landscapes, still life’s and domestic scenes. She drew the attention towards women and girls. In her art pieces she drew upon motherhood/maternity, infants, young girls and old women. Up until Paula Modershon-Becker began her art career, the use of nude females as subjects were not common and not something the attention shined upon. Becker’s work on the female nude expresses an ambivalence to both her subject matter and the method of its representation. In her art piece titled Mother and Child Lying Nude, which was published in 1907 portrays this strong feminine/motherhood role. A mother can be seen cuddled and cozy next to an infant. The infant is nuzzled into the mother’s body seeking to be nurtured. From a quick glance, it looks like the mother is breastfeeding her child which goes to show how powerful a women’s body is. To produce and grow life and to be able to nurture/feed/support an infant once it is born shows how incredible a women’s body really is. Her nude body clearly depicting the imperfections of a women’s body post-partum, but yet the subtleness and beauty of the creation of life in the infant.
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| Paula Modersohn-Becker, Mother and Child Lying Nude, 1907 |
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| Frida Kahlo, My Birth, 1932 |
Pan Yuliang was a well known Chinese female painter. She was well known for her self-portraits and female nudes. Pan focuses mainly on the female nude as her subject in most of her paintings to depict the vitality, beauty and maternity of women. During her time, the use of nude figure paintings were looked down upon and seen as vulgar and cheap, but that never stopped her. Her use of self portraits were meant to be viewed as her expression and her inner feelings that yearned for family, and depicted her sorrow and loneliness. In Yuliangs panting titled Nude Study, she is clearly depicting the beauty and depth of a women’s body. The nude female figure has become the subject of the painting. The painting gracefully embraces the females curves, her breasts and the imperfections that make a women who she really is.
Pan Yuliang, Nude Study, 1947
Shirin Neshat is a female Iranian visual artist who is based in New York City. She is mainly known for her subjects and focus in Islam, femininity, masculinity, modernity and so forth. She is well known for her work in photography, video and film. She explores the relationship between women and the Islamic religion and the cultural values/system of Islam. Her work focuses on both the private and public life of a s Muslim women. In this piece titled Rebellious Silence by Shirin Neshat is a photograph apart of her “Woman of Allah” series. The photograph is a portrait along a vertical seam by the long barrel of a rifle. The rifle rises in the picture, grazing her face at the lips, nose and forehead, leaving her eyes starring intensely towards the viewer from both sides of the barrels rifle barrel. Her series “Woman of Allah” examines the complexities of women’s identity through its culture/religion. A Muslim woman of the Middle East is a more intimate subject that speaks words and volume as to what she stands for. The Arabic text over her face serves as a veil – to lower the male gaze and prevent her from becoming sexualized. A women’s body is constantly portrayed as objects of desire and available to be looked at without consequences and her use of the Arabic writing is meant to steer away the male gaze considering it is a sin in the Islamic culture.
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| Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silent, 1994 |
Michele Pred is a Swedish-American female artist. Through her work, Pred focuses the main idea of the piece towards cultural and political issues such as equal pay, reproductive rights, personal security and other issues that women continue to face. Each of her work speaks volume and has such a deeper meaning to it all. An example would be her fight for reproductive right in which she has used expired birth control pills, and the use of vintage handbags to describe the continuing economic and political struggle for women's right. In her 2019 piece titled “Power of the Purse” she portrays a display of multiple purses which contain powerful statements directing towards women’s rights such as, “me too”, “pussy grabs back”, “equal pay”, “pro choice” and so forth. All her pieces continue to show her fight for women’s right and women’s empowerment.
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