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Papers > Art > feminine beauty in 20th century portraiture
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feminine beauty in 20th century portraiture |
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... During the late 19th century, the role of drawing portraits changed significantly. ... As a major component of the illustrated press in the early 20th century, the drawn image entered a more public sphere. ... In addition to the evolving uses of drawing was the changing role of portraiture. Although it was always in the forefront of experimentation in the hands of early modernists, portraiture fell out of favour with the art critics. 20th century artists, however, didn’t ignore it for long. Sometimes working outside the limelight, progressive figural artists continued to adapt portraiture to their own times. ... Their imagery combines the conventions of behaviour and appearance appropriate to the members of a society at a particular time, as defined by categories of age, gender, race, physical beauty, occupation, social and civil status, and class. The synthetic study of portraiture requires some sensitivity to the social implications of its representational modes, to the documentary value of art works as aspects of social history, and to the subtle interaction between social and artistic conventions. ... And that is what makes portraits and portraiture intriguing; artist and subject deliberate over how to present the sitter to the world. ... When people look at art, they expect to see standards of beauty laid out before them, and that’s a reasonable expectation. ... The luminous light and colour of Impressionist landscapes, too, have qualities for which a word like “Beauty” may easily be applied. But when dealing with modern and contemporary art, the very fabric of which is tied to overturning tradition, or at least challenging it, beauty may assume surprising forms. Over the last several decades, the works on beauty have been followed in their evolution as a value in modern art. In the 1920’s, Surrealists disparaged beauty and appearances in favour of fantasy and dream images. ... Beauty, in the sense of an aesthetic ideal in art, became a pejorative word. What could beauty in art be in the next decade? The words “Pure Beauty” painted on a 1967-1968 canvas by conceptualist John Baldessari will, ironically, question whether such a concept can still exist in our time. Several artists have radically rethought of the human body as a focus for artistic investigations of aesthetic beauty. ... Looking at feminine beauty in portraiture, it was obvious that how the artist worked on a certain portrait influenced greatly our perception of how we would see that person’s character. ... Both artists have chosen not to portray “Beauty” in their portraits. ... Saville’s “Branded” is one in a series of self-portraits that makes the viewer confront new and controversial ideas of feminine beauty (Figure 3 Jenny Saville’s “Three fat ladies”). ... “The Three Graces” by Rubens (Figure 6) shows full-figured women, whose bodies are painted with beauty. ... In the 16th century, Quinten Massys painted a monstrous creation (Figure 8). ... This is mainly demonstrated by the rosebud that she holds- a symbol of love, beauty and youth. ... In a society where the perception of beauty is so limited and important, the “Grotesque Old Woman” seems, today more repellent than either funny or persuasive. Not only is this because of the altered image of beauty but also as laughter is more culturally conditioned than grief. ... Frida amazed people with her beauty and everywhere she went, people stopped in their tracks to stare in wonder. ... In America, people loved her beauty and her work; in Mexico she had many great admirers. |
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Title: feminine beauty in 20th century portraiture
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