Post #5

Ronald Solano

Art and Women

April 27, 2020

Post #5

There is a common representation of nature through women’s work from modern and contemporary art. There is an irrefutable connection between the woman and their body being represented as nature, women being born to this idea that they are nurturers, soft, and caring. Women are often identified as givers of life or “seed” ready to sprout new life, while the idea of objectifying women and telling them that their sole purpose is to give birth is horrifying, I believe there is some capacity to transform these believes to something more realistic. This idea of women being like nature has been explored in art a million times and to this day are still being used, I am not discrediting these women’s work, I just think of how the women could relate their art to the land returning back to its roots right now. There are signs of life like animals roaming the empty streets, this idea of nature claiming its territory back resembles the growth of women’s rights over the years and their exploration in art.

Nature is even given female pronouns, this idea of woman being so raw and of the earth is what I feel is explored to some capacity by these artists. I see Helen Frankenthaler, Sandra Ramos, Monica Giron, Lee Krasner and Louise Bourgeois who are connected in their varying displays of nature and women. Each of these women explore nature in their work in various manners, some of them with color tones relating to the earth and others with gestural qualities that represent the earths movement and the movement of life.



Helen Frankenthaler, a leading abstract expressionist artist has work that exemplifies how nature can be seen through an abstract lens. Frankenthaler’s work of nature can be seen in her color tones and gestures. There’s a very earthly quality to her work, the waves of color in her work resembles the striations of layering in rock formations and waves from the ocean. Her singular abstract forms in her work almost look like they could take the shape of water.



Lee Krasner’s work has to be one of my favorites, I personally prefer her work over her husband’s. Krasner’s work has this very dynamic quality and grunginess that I love, her forms seem almost structural and some of the forms in her work almost look like people. There are some hints of what seem like cubism in her work, but her work feels very lively. There is a feeling of action in her work, some of her work which include more reddish colors almost look like flowers. Flowers are often used to represent potency and birth in art but what I love about how these “flowery” forms are depicted in Krasner’s work is that they are very rugged and very much sharp and fluid. These forms come off as very fast and non-welcoming, these flowers are independent from any typical dominant beliefs of the nature of flowers, these flowers are not meant to be seen as beautiful but rather to ward you off.





Monica Giron’s work is very different from the other approaches of nature, some of Giron’s work has what looks like birds. Her other work also has some semblance of nature which seems to be very visible but also a bit confusing, like her work “Llegada”. In this work we see various similar forms all centering around what looks like a frozen peak of ice, everything surrounding it seems like rocky mountain tops. The representation of multiple sides to the mountain is very apparent, it’s almost like there is a narrative of how life can be multifaceted and looking at the struggles of life and tribulations. Eventually you will get to the “top” or where one peaks, this is further enhanced by the title “Llegada” which roughly translate to arrival. There is beauty in how Giron displays this journey through nature and its creations.

Louise Bourgeois take on nature takes the form of an insect, the spider. There is a common focus on spiders in Bourgeois’ work, she has one work that is titled “Mother” and this work is of a giant spider constructed through weaving. Bourgeois’ work explores the idea of maternity through spiders and how they carry their babies, the spider is what Bourgeois’ identifies with this idea. What I like about her work out of all the other artists is that this approach is almost creepy-like, the idea of being a mother itself is terrifying to people, bringing in new life and having to take care of it on your own, but I believe there’s beauty in how large Bourgeois’ makes these sculptures of these spiders. Motherhood is something huge that people tend to discredit or sometimes claim over.

Sandra Ramos has a clear narrative in her work with its relation to nature. Her work clearly constructs the idea of how people believe women’s bodies are land that they can take claim over, this is represented through the actual display of land with women’s faces on the land. This is an actual clearer approach at the idea of nature which differs greatly from other artists like Krasner or Frankenthaler but overall has a message of how nature can be reproduced to mean different things.

Through modern and contemporary art there has been a clear shift in how ideas could be represented, they have been explored through natures lens. These women have represented nature in various forms, whether that be a clear representation of earth or abstracted through colors and gestures. Nonetheless, this work takes an even bigger meaning on when you think of its innate relation to women and societal beliefs. These women use nature to transform these ideas of women and how the world could be viewed. 

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames Hudson Ltd, 2020.

http://barro.cc/en/artists/10/monica-giron

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/arts/design/review-helen-frankenthaler-abstract-climates-provincetown.html?auth=login-email&login=email

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/3b/03/993b0352aab5a8949f8e7e8dfc328581.jpg

https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/3826/

https://www.cubanartresources.org/sandra-ramos

La maldita circunstancia del agua por todas partes, 1993, Sandra Ramos

LLegada, 1991, Monica Giron

Flood, 1967, Helen Frankenthaler

 

Maman, Bronze, 1999, Louise Bourgeois 

Bird Talk, 1955, Lee Krasner