Body Politics
Art History Final
All over the world of various cultures, people have used art of various medias to portray a political meaning. From sculptures to paintings and graphic billboard illustrations, people have been using art to express there new ideas or certain viewpoints. This has been going on for a long time too it is not a new concept of using art to help an argument or prove a point, it has been going on for quite some time. To be even more specific people have been using the human body, mail and female, to portray there messages further. Showing the controversy of a family of various racial differences or the female body seen in a different aspect can really spark controversy among viewers. But that is in part why the artist created the work the way they did. The artists that create these works of art depicting a political issue or something they see as unright or unjust want the public to discuss it, argue it, get angry with it. By the public reacting to their works of art means the art they have created has served its purpose in gaining attention to an issue the artist see fit to address. The artist create differently than other standard artists. These artist are trying to light fires in people. To let people see things in a way they have not seen it before. To prove a point. To send a message. By using the human body in these works of art we relate better to these pieces. People see humans in works of art and understand. Humans relate to human. They can imagine what it would be like if it was them captured in that canvas. People can see human interaction in a new way through art pieces such as these. This is a collection of art pieces that demand to be talked about, that are provoking change or informing of how things really are.
Title: Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?
Place of origin: the Guerrilla Girls
Date: 1989
Dimensions: 27.9 x 71.1 cm (11 x 28 in.)
Materials: poster
Description 200-400 words.
The Guerrilla Girls is an all female group of artist anonymously hidden by guerrilla masks. These woman came out with the poster “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?” in 1989 as a way to spark expose sexual and racial inequalities among modern art pieces in museums all around but especially in the Metropolitan museum of art in New York city. This poster is one of a full series ranging from 1985 to 2006. The 1989 poster is a combination of the Ingres, La Grand Odalisque being the female body in the poster this painting is of a female body so abstracted in the actuality of a nude female form. The hips being to largely out of scale and the beast being so exaggerated this really shows that this is female form exaggerating the female genitalia, not really is it a true female body. The Guerrilla Girls chose this female form because it is an inaccurate depiction of a woman. Using that they then placed there iconic guerrilla head on the Odalisque piece to help strengthen there message of female activist. The Guerrilla Girls poster stands for all females artists or not. They are fighting for equality among all women in the world of art. The Guerrilla Girls use a female form to express the unjust of using nude female forms in the art works that get into the Metropolitan museum.
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Title: Miguel Cabrera, From Spaniard and Black: Mulatto, 1763
Place of origin: Miguel Cabrera
Date: 1763
Dimensions:
Materials: painting
Description 200-400 words.
This notorious painting crafted in 1763 comes from a group of paintings brings awareness to europe as to what was going on in the new colonies. The painting Miguel Cabrera, From Spaniard and Black: Mulatto depicts a new kind of family. In europe during this time idea of a mixed family was outrageous. But here having it as something people can see as evidence as to what was happening in the new colonies what ground breaking. But here in this family we are given the perception that the female in not a slave to the spaniard but is that of a wife a rightful, caring mother to their daughter. The spaniard in this painting clearly the father to the mixed child body language tells us a lot about the dynamic of the family. Within this painting the father has his hand softly on the back of the child and the other we see he is assisting the child in drinking or eating the fruit that she has in her hands. The father is also leaning into the direction of his daughter. This really give a sense of embracing the child. Through the body language depicted in this painting we are really given the feeling of love and caring that the father has for his child. As to the mother who stands very tall directing her whole focus to the spaniard. 
Title:Cut piece, 1965
Place of origin: Yoko Ono
Date:1965
Dimensions: 10 minutes
Materials: performance piece, Yoko Ono, her close and scissors
Description 200-400 words.
The performance piece created, designed and performed by Yoko Ono was the first big start to a new kind of art media. Her art was not something of a physical sense, something that could be placed in a museus and passed down from generation to generation like most paintings or sculptures. No, Yoko Ono art was the act, her performance was the art, not necessarily the video that even documented the event. Performance art became something after Yoko Ono’s Cut piece. This was reaching a new level of art and expanding the definitions and qualifications of what art is or can be. During this event, Yoko Ono has random people come off the streets of new york and without saying anything are asked to walk up Yoko Ono where she sits still and unbothered and cut any size fabric strip of clothing off her body. Through this you see peoples reactions and hesitations. The differences between where and how much men and women cut off Yoko Ono’s body. Through the whole performance you see the fear that begins to take place in Yoko Ono. As the cutting progresses she become more and more uncomfortable and that becomes very evident towards the end no matter how much she tries to hide it.
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Title: Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra, 2006
Place of origin:
Date:2006
Dimensions: h73.25xw54.25in
Materials: collage
Description 200-400 words.
The 2006 painting by Wangechi Mutu is one of a highly argumental art piece. The artist herself Wangechi Mutu was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and educated in Europe and the United States her background is evident in her works of art. With her piece the Preying Mantra it has a lot of african looks to it but also influences of western cultures. The body in this artwork is an aspect to the piece that hold a lot of meaning. The body is in that of a seductive pose. Her body is closed and open at the same time. With the hand behind her head we get a very seductive sexy look about her to where she almost want us to be looking at her. With her leg crossed one over the other she is in that aspect covering herself but also the placement of them adding to the look given with the arm it seems seductive. But if we consider the title Preying Mantra, the praying mantis eats her mate during interquorse. Wangechi Mutu was giving this art piece this kind of title because of the un right of female sexuality across cultures. By having this title it really give the art work a bit of a sting.
Title:Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005,
Place of origin: Kehinde Wiley
Date: 2005
Dimensions:261 cm × 221 cm
Materials: paintings
Description 200-400 words.
Kehinde Wiley is an artist that is most famous for his works of art of black people. This piece is no exception to that. Kehinde Wiley created a series of art pieces that took average people off the streets and Kehinde Wiley would paint them, but he would paint them in the position of a historical painting of their choice, and wearing anything of their choice as well. His Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps is one of those works. Here Kehinde Wiley is really enfant sizing the overload of masculinity in works of art like this. By having the royal red background and the delicate sterling as the background texture it gives a very “hi look at how great I am” look to it. In addition to the overload of masculinity between the red and gold of the background you have small sperm splattered about. The body position of the man in this painting is something that can not got unmissed. The whole stance of this horse and man is very prominent and ready to conquer. With the addition of the man's outfit really adds to it, giving a modern look and feel to a very classic look is something that brought this piece much attention.
Title:Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1972,
Place of origin:
Date:1972
Dimensions:Each photograph: 17.7 x 12.7 cm (7 x 5 in.); Text panel: 39.4 x 26 cm (15 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.); 79.4 X 518.2 cm (31 1/4 x 204 in.), installed
Materials:
Description 200-400 words.
Eleanor Antin in 1972 created a series of photographs that expressed her early feminist work, Eleanor Antin’s Carving: A Traditional Sculpture is 148 black-and-white photographs documenting Eleanor Antin loss of 10 pounds over 37 days. Every morning she would photograph herself naked in the same four stances to record her barely perceptible self-induced weight loss. What is interesting about this installation of photographs is perhaps the choice of title. A traditional Sculpture, normally when we do see sculptures they are in a very posed stance and are more often than not are naked. Here we are looking at the progression of the weight loss of a the artist. To fit the look of how society sees pretty, to be skinny she is working off the layers that are hiding her beauty. In the same way a sculpture would carve away the unwanted stone to reveal the beauty of the sculpted form. Her Eleanor Antin is really taking a stab at the standard idea of pretty. She is challenging it by calling her progress a sculpture. Here Eleanor Antin really makes us ask ourselves what beauty is and within artworks where the skinny form is idolized she is showing the progression of what it does to the body and the difference it really make or that of the little difference that it makes.
Title:Robert Mapplethorpe, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979
Place of origin: Robert Mapplethorpe
Date:1979
Dimensions: 341 x 341 mm
Materials: photography
Description 200-400 words.
The Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter photograph is something that of its time was something very contrivicial. The idea of same sex relationships was something that was not accepted among this time. There fore people who were kept quiet for fear of persecution. In this photograph we have two men Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter. Ridley is seated in a leather wingback armchair, and Heeter, who stands to his left, resting his right elbow on the armchair. The clothing identifies Ridley and Heeter with the gay S&M scene, a subculture which represented a type of behaviour as well as an adopted style or attitude, often associated with leather and bondage. This photograph posed a lot of issues and was not accepted by many people. In the sequence of the photograph there is a lot of contrast. The living room itself is something that was so classic at the time. Having a living room with simply drapes warming vaces, a deer antler stand table, and a very traditional rug. Then in the middle of it all you through in Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter who are wearing harsh black leather. The contrast is the real focus of this photograph, metaphorically.
Title: Ana Mendieta Silueta Works in Mexico,
Place of origin: Ana Mendieta mexico
Date: 1973-77
Materials: everything
Description 200-400 words.
Ana Mendieta Silueta Works in Mexico are something that have posed question over the years of their creation and publicity. Through using various forms of media Ana Mendieta expresses the female body but in a very eluting way. Most of all these works she uses her own body to assist in the making of. Weather that be covering herself all in ink and using her body as a print, or even wrapping her body in viney twigs to create an outline of her body. Ana Mendieta said ounce that her works and how she goes about creating them reconnects her to the universe. She experiments with various forms of media and documents them by photography. She expresses the female body through various forms bring a new way of seeing mother nature. Perhaps the oddity of these works of art can also be attached to the odditys of the evens that occured during Ana Mendieta’s life. Just considering her death and how still to this day it remains unsolved. Many of her pieces give the sense of death or that of a cremation. With the poses of the bodies and the materials used it seems like death of the idea of what happens after you die was present during the creation of many if not all these art works.
Ana Mendieta Silueta Works in Mexico are something that have posed question over the years of their creation and publicity. Through using various forms of media Ana Mendieta expresses the female body but in a very eluting way. Most of all these works she uses her own body to assist in the making of. Weather that be covering herself all in ink and using her body as a print, or even wrapping her body in viney twigs to create an outline of her body. Ana Mendieta said ounce that her works and how she goes about creating them reconnects her to the universe. She experiments with various forms of media and documents them by photography. She expresses the female body through various forms bring a new way of seeing mother nature. Perhaps the oddity of these works of art can also be attached to the odditys of the evens that occured during Ana Mendieta’s life. Just considering her death and how still to this day it remains unsolved. Many of her pieces give the sense of death or that of a cremation. With the poses of the bodies and the materials used it seems like death of the idea of what happens after you die was present during the creation of many if not all these art works.
Work cited
