Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Fall 12-2016
Faculty Advisor(s)
Dr. Véronique Olivier
Abstract
The research I have conducted for my French Major Senior Thesis is a culmination of my passion for and studies of both French language and culture and the history and practice of Visual Arts. I have examined, across the history of art, the representation of women, and concluded that until the 20th century, these representations have been tools employed by the makers of history and those at the top of the patriarchal system, used to control women’s images and thus women themselves. I survey these representations, which are largely created by men—until the 20th century. I discuss pre-historical portrayals in the form of fertility figurines, the representation of Marie Antoinette, (Queen at Versailles during the late 18th century), by portraitist Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun, and depictions of women in impressionism, a male-centric modernist art movement of the mid-19th century. The remainder of my research centers on female French artists and their work (e.g., Louise Bourgeois, Annette Messager, Agnès Varda), emerging in the 20th century, grounded in writings by French theorist Hélène Cixous, who calls for “l’écriture feminine,” or female writing—women writing their own stories. I argue that, finally, proper representations of women are created due to the fact that women themselves are creating them. The common denominator in these women’s work is the authenticity of communicating their own experience. In conclusion, my intention is to show how and why the art historical canon is flawed, to introduce audiences to women creating their own representations, and to examine our cultural landscape regarding gender representation and how women may identify and create as a result.
Recommended Citation
Barlow, Margaret. Women Artists. Beaux-Arts Editions ed. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1999. Print. Baudelaire, Charles, and Jonathan Mayne. ‘Le peinture de la vie moderne’/The Painter of Modern Life, and Other Essays. London: Phaidon, 1964. Print. Best, Susan. Visualizing Feeling : Affect And The Feminine Avant-Garde. London: I.B.Tauris, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 3 Sept. 2016. Bourgeois, Louise, and Jean Frémon. Louise Bourgeois : Moi, Eugénie Grandet. Paris: Gallimard, 2010. Print. Broude, Norma, and Mary D. Garrard. Reclaiming Female Agency : Feminist Art History After Postmodernism. Berkeley: U of California, 2005. Print. "Chantal Thomas : Son Actualité Sur France Inter." France Inter. Radio France, n.d. Web. Sept. Oct. 2016. . Cixous, Hélène. Le Rire De La Méduse Et Autres Ironies. Paris: Galilée, 2010. Print. Fiant, Antony, Roxane Hamery, and Éric Thouvenel. Agnès Varda: le cinéma et au-delà. Rennes: Presses Universitaires De Rennes, 2009. Print. Goodman, Dena, and Thomas E. Kaiser, eds. Marie Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. New York: Routledge, 2003. Google Books. Web. 9 Sept. 2016 . Kuspit, Donald. "ANNETTE MESSAGER." Aperture, no. 142 (1996): 77. Myers, Author: Nicole. "Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2016. Nixon, Mignon, and Louise Bourgeois. Fantastic Reality: Louise Bourgeois and a Story of Modern Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2005. Print. Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the Canon: Feminist Desire and the Writing of Art's Histories. London: Routledge, 1999. Print. Pollock, Griselda. Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism, and Histories of Art. London: Routledge, 1988. Print. Robinson, Hilary, ed. Feminism-Art-Theory: An Anthology, 1968-2000. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Print. "2016 Sculpture: Annette Messager." The Japan Art Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. . Hein, Hilde S., and Carolyn Korsmeyer. Aesthetics in Feminist Perspective. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993. Print. Robinson, Hilary. Feminism-art-theory : an anthology, 1968-2000.
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Art Practice Commons, Byzantine and Modern Greek Commons, Christianity Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Cultural History Commons, Education Policy Commons, European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Film Production Commons, Fine Arts Commons, French and Francophone Literature Commons, French Linguistics Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, History of Gender Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Illustration Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Legal Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other Classics Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Other French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Painting Commons, Photography Commons, Political History Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Printmaking Commons, Public History Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Screenwriting Commons, Sculpture Commons, Social History Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons, Translation Studies Commons, United States History Commons, Visual Studies Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons