Dynamics in Feminist Art History

Feminist Art History challenges the conventions of the diachronic conventional modes of art history and brings about issues of gender differences. The interdisciplinary research by feminist art historians are a valuable contemporary narrative to the field. Within this narrative, feminism looks at issues beyond art history and into the realm of the macro views of world politics.

Many female artists and art historians are disgruntled by Postmodernist theory because, and rightfully so, Postmodernism attemps to categorize these artists and historians with the conventional modes of art history. Postmodernism, as well as Postfeminism, appear to "remasculinize" the feminist identities (96).

Although many feminists art historians are working to expose the deficiencies of masculine driven theories within art history, Patricia Mathews argues that is is important to look at psychoanalytical theories of feminism. Mathews discusses Lacan's Symbolic Orer informing the work of feminist art historians. From what I gathered, feminism is ingrained in every man and woman of difference races and classes during the time he or she was in the mother's womb.

Also, it seems that many feminist art historians are using their narratives to challenge the masculine-driven theories of Modernism and are not focusing their efforts on contemporary artists who create work that deals with issues of race, gender, and difference. It is unfortunate that feminist art historians need to prove themselves within the art history field but these historians are starting to focus their energies on artists who deal with gender and race.

Matthews does a great job of explaining how she integrates ideology and subjectivity within her analysis of artist Suzanne Valadon. By focusing on the artist and the culture of the artist's time period, Mathew's provides a more holistic as well as a more detailed analysis of Valadon's female nude paintings. These females in these paintings are allowed to be themselves without the make of the "I" as the Other because of Mathews removes the word feminism from her analysis (being that it is outside the masculine gaze - 102). Also, I thought it was very important that it was noted that Valadon was an artist's model because it allows the reader to understand Valodon's own "I" to bring out the "I" of the females portrayed in her paintings. After discussing subjectivity representation of Valodon's female nudes. Mathews goes on to challenge the ideologoies of the most male critics repulsion of these female nudes. Mathews discredits these critics analyses as the result of bourgeois society's rejection of these female nudes as being different. But Mathews also does a great job of bringing in the cultural context the artist was working in to understand her subjective reasonings.

Hopefully, we will have some time to discuss this article next week.