Making a Mark writes:
"What the women had planned for 2013 fell only a little short of world domination! In the end, in 2013, the project organised and held SEVEN concurrent exhibitions and went international. Where do they go from here? Some National Portrait Gallery has got to pick them up at some point surely?
"This is an art blog project which started with an admirable set of values, achieved its goals and then changed up a gear and created a significant movement amongst painters. In all of this the art blog has proved a valuable tool for showcasing the work of various women artists and providing a place of reference and an accessible identity for their work."
Thanks for the recognition, Katherine!
Read the entire post describing our history and the development of the Women Painting Women blog and shows at the Making a Mark blog here
Women Painting Women was also awarded The Art Innovation of the Year Award
The award is for the Women Painting Women (R)evolution show catalog published by Matter Deep Publishing, available on-demand and for PDF download here
Posts
Would like to have a conversation with the organizers...about how there are not artists represented who paint women who have real figures--painted with dignity. Was excited to look at the work by the wonderful women painters, and can sense the world view that goes acknowledges the "woman's gaze," but did not see a variety of body types. Thought for sure there would be women of all sizes and shades portrayed, not just the standard art school model type/ multimedia standard type. What are your thoughts on the subject. And feel free to contact me personally thru my email, cnmcrae@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin. Thank you for the challenging question. ur whole culture is influenced by idealized standard of female beauty, including women artists who paint women. We all wish there were more variety of body types (and more women of color) represented. We try to show as much variety as we can find.
DeleteAs women we are constantly too much or not enough: we are either too feminist, or not feminist enough - too pretty, or not pretty enough etc etc etc. It's the same double-edged sword we all face every day. Certainly we think hard about these subjects, but in the end the blog tries to be a survey of what's out there, and not a filter nor even commentary on how women are choosing to paint women. We do invite criticism and commentary to get these converstations started on our facebook page! If you have any fine examples of paintings you would like to see here please feel free to post them on that Facebook page for us and all to see.
I agree, there is a lack of variety of body types. Most societies put a premium on beauty and the premium especailly pays women to be beautiful. This is what we have seen and really is what is expected. That is why male artists usually choose a model who has a beauty of her own. Traditionally people have bought paintings that have beauty in them. This has changed with society and the time we now live in. Elephant dung and other uglies sell. But society has not grown to accept woman who are not beautiful or at least "not ugly". Artists usually have been able to sell the "fair". Perhaps without even thinking about it, women artists too are choosing what they are accustomed to seeing. Maybe without thinking they paint what could sell more easily.....beauty. This is just a wondering of my mind. I actually usually choose woman who have a way, manner or look that expresses how I fee. But I have noticed they are usually pleasant looking and help express the beauty I feel we have that is unique from men. Yet, couldn't I try harder to show this inner beauty coming from a woman whose exterior is less beautiful?
ReplyDeleteSometime I think that whenever we get a chance to see a women's painting it is always a common-fact that painting show you the beauty of women or a beautiful women. Mostly artists choose beautiful models to paint, Now it is required that we change concept of painting from beauty to other facts which are more important than a beautiful face.
ReplyDelete