Gender Specific Objects and Art

Objects are sometimes designed with qualities that appeal to one gender more than the other. Companies may design products or packaging that makes males or females want to buy them more.

An example of this gender specific design would be in Gillette razors. Men's Gillette razors are often shaped in a way that has connotations of power and technological qualities. The name "Gillette Fusion" has a strong, powerful feel to it.




Women's razors are generally more about elegance and beauty. Gillette Venus is a more elegant name; Venus has links to the Roman goddess of love.   

Yorkie chocolate bars used to focus on male consumers, and had a slogan: "It's not for girls". The bold text and chunky nature of the chocolate made it seem more masculine.



Snickers also did a similar thing which appealed to men; their motto was: "Snickers, get some nuts!". Mr T from The A Team is used in their TV advertising. He is considered a manly character and having him represent their product is a way for Snickers to aim at male customers. This advertising pitch to men may possibly make women want to buy the product too by feeling left out.

Some artwork is also aimed at a certain gender audience.

Ernie Barnes created some paintings about American football which have a very masculine, competitive tone. The hectic and brutal composition and concept of men fighting and the sporty subject definitely appeals more to male viewers.





C.M. Coolidge's Painting of dogs playing poker is a painting which men would find more interesting. The game of poker has mainly been a man's game throughout history and the drinks and cigars are mainly associated with male leisures.



Second World War propaganda aimed at women was motivational and attempted to get women performing more masculine roles in factories. The woman in the poster has a manly appearance with the way she is posed and the shirt she is wearing, but keeps a feminine aspect with the polka dot bandana.

Visual Language and Emotion, 18th Century Fantasy

The Baroque style started declining in the 18th century. It was being replaced by Rococo, a visual language of style and expression merging from France; society started to grow an obsession with fantasy. Wealth was often displayed through more expressive visual aspects. The Rococo sculptural design symbolised water in it's flowing curved qualities. Nature was incorporated an many arts in the 18th century and nature had connotations of love and emotion. Nature was represented in a very romantic way, often fantastical.

In painting, the Rococo visual style was very bright and the colours were quite delicate and not harsh or bold. Landscapes were the most common subject of the century and artists like Fragonard painted landscapes in paintings associated with love and romance.

happy lovers - Fragonard



Madame de Pompadour was the mistress of king Louis XV. She was a woman with a lot of influence and power in France in the 18th century and she commissioned many artworks. Rococo quickly developed as lots of money was invested in artists' paintings and sculptures.

Francois Boucher - madame de pompadour



Madame de Pompadour had her own image which was highlighted in her commissioned paintings. She always held a rose in hand which resembled peak of physical beauty and perfection. The open flower also had a metaphor of sexual maturity.

all good things come together -

Madame de Pompadour at her Toilette -



Later on in her life, artists started producing works which mocked Madame de Pompadour.

Chinoiserie was a visual language that appeared later on. It was a style that was influenced by Rococo and art of China. European artists made copies of Chinese artists' work and the European reproductions often presented Chinese culture stereotypes.

Visual Language and Reason, Late Long 18th Century

The visual language in arts in the late 1700s was based on logic. Britain's empire was growing and the artwork and design reflected the power and status of the empire. New ideas of British people created a neo-classical visual language based on empire.

Adrian forty - objects of desire



In the 18th century, British people went on a grand tour. This was a journey to places like Rome and Venice. The people that went on a grand tour would communicate with artists and architects and take ideas and influences back to Britain with them.

Archaeology began, and ancient places in Pompeii and Herculaneum were discovered. These places influenced design and architecture in Britain amongst other European countries.

Robert Adam



Architecture of the period had a style of simplicity and order. Interiors were filled with plasterwork and furniture.

Rob Adam was influenced by Roman design and his designs link to classical ornament and style.

Examples of Pompeii ruins influence to Rob A's work



Josiah Wedgewood's ceramic designs had elements of classical visual language.

Joshua Reynolds created portrait paintings based on romanticism and love. His works had links to gothic language.

Joshua Reynolds portraiture



Thomas Gainsborough - women portrayed




In France, Neo Classical paintings were created that captured historic events.

Jaques-Louis David



Eugene Delacroix




Angelica Kauffmann - female artist. emphasis on personality, not physical beauty.



Influences of the Roman Empire were evident in French neo-classical art. Napoleon was often portrayed wearing clothes similar to Caesar. French artists saw Rome as a powerful empire. British art, however, never included Roman attire. Britain had it's own massive empire and artists didn't feel the need to look up to the Romans.

Sculptures such as Phidias were influenced by ancient Rome and Pompeii.

Johann Zoffany



Sculpture wasn't very free and liberated; the Roman style was imitated and used as reference so the sculptors' work was often less expressive.

Antonio





In France, during the 17th and 18th centuries, intellectual thinking started to emerge and expand through Europe. People began to question their rulers and religious documents started to be replaced with science. Breakthroughs in science and medicine became more and more common and the populations moved further away from tradition and religion.

There were many more social changes that began to occur.

Mary Wollstonecraft started a shift in gender roles and equality

Anti slavery movement

Independence of America

France became a republic after execution of their monarchy. They go to war with the Austrian empire. Then a post French revolution rises and Napoleon B becomes the emperor of France. This created a French neo-classical visual language that represented the French empire. This visual language followed Britain's neo-classical style but it also included ancient Roman and Greek symbolism.

Industrial revolution meant that many people were unemployed

Rousseau

Joseph Wright of Derby
experiment on bird in air pump








 

The English Renaissance and Nationhood

Following England's medieval phase, a new visual language emerged. During the Elizabethan period, castles were no longer built and people bought new country houses, which meant they had more money to spend. People therefore began to display fine art and ornaments in their homes with their money.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century, the gothic art style in England was being replaced by renaissance art of Rome. An Elizabethan style emerged which affected art and architecture. English visual language was becoming independent of European renaissance art and influence from Rome.

little Morton hall, Cheshire 1550s



Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
Robert Smythson 1591-1597



There were influences from Roman architecture in English buildings such as columns, but the buildings had a unique English style too. There was emphasis on a symmetrical structure to the buildings.

Buildings had a Long Gallery, which was a long corridor once used for walks. This room became a place of decoration with many artworks presented there.

The Devonshire Tapestries, Hardwick Hall



The high chamber bedroom was the most important room in the home. There was lots of décor, plasterwork and paintings. A lot of paintings at that time were English replicas of Renaissance art.

Renaissance artists didn't just focus on portraiture. Fashion and ceramics were also produced by renaissance artists and designers. This influenced the Elizabethan style.

Plasterwork evolved to become an art form, and furniture was not just designed for function, but fashion too. Elizabethan decoration emphasised uniqueness and modernity.

sea dog table - hardwick hall



A phase of consumption began in England; people would buy things to show off their wealth and status. People would imitate others and buy what they were buying in order to stay high up in social status. Elizabeth I used material possessions as an instrument of rule, to make people buy her gifts. The visual language was heavily based on status and expressing wealth. Consumer demand helped merchants prosper, and foreign trade and communication gave English visual language foreign ideas.

Nick Hilliard - portrait of Elizabeth I



Jewellery was significant in Elizabethan society, and different stones had different symbolic meanings.

The Rainbow Portrait - Isaac Oliver 1600



The jewelled serpent symbolised wisdom
Ruby symbolised the heart - suggesting women are lead by their heart.

Armanda Portrait - George Gower
Hand on the globe represents her wish for an empire.



In the early 17th century, Elizabeth I died and James I becomes the new ruler of England. A new visual language was born and the Steward period risen. Jacobean style was created and art and architecture began to change. Buildings were formed with brick instead of stone, less glass was used because of it's high cost. The symmetry was still incorporated in architecture though.

Blickling Hall



Décor in this era was expressive and displayed pleasure of the senses. It was more modern in design elements.

Burton Agnes Yorkshire



The long gallery in the home shifted to the Great Hall. Lots of Jacobean furniture was used to emphasise luxury and wealth.

Material Culture, Absolutionism, and Oligarchy 18th Century Baroque and Palladianism

By the 17th Century, renaissance art influenced most of Europe. Baroque originated in Italy but had different styles in different countries it influenced. The visual language included modern qualities and elaborate materials.

The Palace of Versailles had a lot of Baroque design elements. Baroque was often used as a display of power, and France was the centre of power in Europe in the 17th Century.

Galerie des Glas



Salon d'Apollo



Salon de Guerre




Art became a political statement, especially in palaces.

Louis XIV painted as Jupiter



Louis XIV was an absolute monarch and his word was law, he was symbolised by the sun. Versailles influenced many following palaces.

During the steward era in Britain, Baroque emerged because Britain became a republic after the beheading of Charles I in 1660. Charles II became king and brought Baroque to Britain along with other ideas and influences from France.

There were a wide range of Baroque painting styles, all quite similar to late renaissance style. The Baroque painting period lasted from around the beginning of the 17th century to the 18th century. Baroque paintings consisted of a great drama and the colours were very rich and deep. The paintings often presented beauty.

las maninas - Diego Velasquez



There was a shift in ideals of female beauty and what was considered perfection.

The erogenous zone changes and different parts of the body were now highlighted and celebrated in painting.

Anthony Van Dyck



Mary hill

Aniconism and it's Limitations in Art

In some cultures, artists are limited in what they can create due to aniconism and can't make drawings or sculptures based on people or animals.

Muslims for example, are not allowed to portray people or anything created by God. Islamic artists usually therefore produce calligraphy based art or geometric patterns. Abstract art is not a representation of an icon so is therefore acceptable too. A Buddhist statue was demolished in Afghanistan because of the Islamic view on this. 



The Dead Christ by Mantegna shows a depiction of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. Painting religious characters was very common in Christianity in the renaissance period in Europe. Christian artists celebrated their religion by painting scenes from the bible, they were not restricted in what they painted by the concept of aniconism.



Michelangelo represented God as an aged human in the Sistine Chapel reaching out to Adam. This depiction of god would not be allowed in certain religions.




In Hinduism, the deities are sometimes drawn or sculpted as nudes. This would have been repressed in Christianity throughout previous centuries.

Many controversial artworks have been criticized because they can be offensive to a culture or a belief system. Andreas Serano's Piss Christ image is an example of this controversy. The image raised a lot of protests and complaints by Christians who found it offensive. The image was attacked with a hammer because of one man's anger, provoked by the concept of the work.



Da Vinci's Last Supper painting was recreated for the TV show Shameless in 2004 which was also seen as controversial to Christians.








This scene from the bible has also been used by Renee Cox in her self portrait titled: Yo Mama's Last Supper. In this work, she compares herself to Jesus Christ which may cause some Christians to be offended. The nudity may also be controversial to some audiences.

The Ancient World

Artists are always looking to the past for inspiration and ideas. I will look at how ancient art has had an influence on artworks through history.

Alberto Giacometti was influenced by the cave of swimmers in Egypt. 





Giacometti's work shown below has links to the artwork in the cave. The figures in his sculpture have very similar stick figure anatomies.




The Willendorf Venus statue inspired sculpture work of Henry Moore. He took the exaggerated anatomy of humans from this ancient statuette.






The Tartaria Tablets from 5500 BC are considered the earliest evidence of written communication by man.



Jean Michel Basquiat was inspired by these markings and made artwork with a very similar visual language.


In ancient Greece, a lot of art was presented in pottery that was produced. This ancient Greek pottery influenced the work of Grayson Perry.










Grayson Perry's pottery art was similar to ancient Greek art in the way it presented a scene or story.





Pablo Picasso's distorted cubist portraits were inspired by ancient African masks and sculptures.