For centuries, there has been a standard for beauty. This standard varies on specific time periods and cultures. An individual would have to live in complete isolation to not be effected by or aware of the standard of beauty to which the human body is held. Greek sculpture depicted the body to be “perfect.” The human form was completely whole with proportions that were the most desirable. The Greeks thought that “the gods took human form” (Robertson and McDaniel, 84). The image of man was stylized. In present day America, one cannot avoid the standards. Advertisements, movies, and other forms of pop media set the standard for what a beautiful person should look like (Robertson and McDaniel, 86). The round pegs that do not fit into the square hole are made to feel inadequate and less “desirable.” Magazine covers are covered in headlines about how to get slim quickly or how to give yourself a complete makeover. Natural beauty is overlooked.
The Body in art is very diverse. In Maureen Connor’s sculpture, Thinner Than You, there is no actual body in the dress, but the stretched dress is one that would fit an impossibly thin body (Robertson and McDaniel, 76). The piece is not meant to be beautiful; the artist did not create it for it to be looked upon as something beautiful, it is a statement. Is the need to be that thin really a competition? The body in art can be used to express what the artist feels is lacking, the body is not shown “whole.” In James Croak’s Descentered Skin, the human body is an empty shell. There is a void. Something is missing from this person’s life (Robertson and McDaniel, 75). The use of the nude human figure in art has also been seen as pornographic. The “pillars of society” such as politicians and religious groups have been known to reduce the nude figure to porn. It would be the people who have never had any previous knowledge of what Art is or how to read deeper into an image. They negatively judged images that they did not understand. The images of “porn and prostitution” were not reflected on, instead they were things that would degrade women and would have cause sexual harassment and rape (Vance). For those who had forced art shows to be closed because of questionable pieces or ideas, which art was obviously not for them.
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ReplyDeleteThe blog begins generic and impersonal. Auvenshine could have defined what ‘the standard of beauty’ was in relation to the week’s topic, Gender. I did not understand the meaning of ‘whole’ in connection to the human form. Was it supposed to be literal or figurative? The blog continues to restate the Robertson and McDaniel reading titled “The Body”. Auvenshine references ‘Thinner Than You’ by Maureen Connor and implies the artist is making a statement (Robertson and Daniels 77). She forms the statement into a question ‘Is the need to be that thin really a competition?’, but does not answer it.
ReplyDeleteAuvenshine stumbled upon an interesting aspect to James Croak’s ‘Descentered Skin’, “something is missing” (Robertson and McDaniel 75). One of the things missing is any concrete definition of if the skin belongs to a man or a woman. Croak chose not to emphasize the physical sex of the skin. Through the lecture, we discussed Judith Butler and the issue of sex vs. gender. Butler disputes the ‘biology-is-destiny’ formulation (Gender Slide 21). This means that there is no correlation or relevancy for Croak to detail if the skin is physically a man or a woman.
The rest of the blog continues to restate the reading and make broad generalizations “they negatively judge images they did not understand”. The most intriguing part of the blog was the brief comments on James Croak’s work.
McDaniel, Craig and Jean Robertson. Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2010.
James Croak interview, Barbara Bloemink, Curatorial Director, National Design Museum, Smithsonian. http://www.jamescroak.com/html/interview/index.html
Image: Robertson and McDaniel. Image 3-2. James Croak. ‘Decentered Skin’, 1995. Mixed Media.