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Art, Sexuality, and Gender Constructions in Western Culture

Art, Sexuality, and Gender Constructions in Western Culture AbstractThis article interrogates constructs of sexuality and gender in Western art. Since the early Renaissance, art flaunts sexuality almost exclusively through the female nude, while the male body and desire remain invisible. In Titian’s erotic Danaë, Zeus is morphed into golden rain; in Rembrandt’s version, he immaterializes into pure light; with Klimt’s Danaë, the sexual act becomes a female autoeroticism. Those images that show the male partner in sexual action and without mythological disguise are rare in Western art. The problem is not misogyny but asymmetry. Even modern and avant-garde artists perpetuate traditional conceptions that equate culture and intellect with man, and sexuality and passivity with women. A change only occurs in the 1990s with artists confusing such conceptions. Traditional art history has suppressed the eroticizing effects of erotic art, although the boundary between art and pornography continues to be reframed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Art in Translation Taylor & Francis

Art, Sexuality, and Gender Constructions in Western Culture

Hammer-Tugendhat, Daniela; Zanchi, Michael
Art in Translation , Volume 4 (3): 22 – Sep 1, 2012
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Art, Sexuality, and Gender Constructions in Western Culture

Abstract

AbstractThis article interrogates constructs of sexuality and gender in Western art. Since the early Renaissance, art flaunts sexuality almost exclusively through the female nude, while the male body and desire remain invisible. In Titian’s erotic Danaë, Zeus is morphed into golden rain; in Rembrandt’s version, he immaterializes into pure light; with Klimt’s Danaë, the sexual act becomes a female autoeroticism. Those images that show the male partner in sexual...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2012 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1756-1310
DOI
10.2752/175613112X13376070683397
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThis article interrogates constructs of sexuality and gender in Western art. Since the early Renaissance, art flaunts sexuality almost exclusively through the female nude, while the male body and desire remain invisible. In Titian’s erotic Danaë, Zeus is morphed into golden rain; in Rembrandt’s version, he immaterializes into pure light; with Klimt’s Danaë, the sexual act becomes a female autoeroticism. Those images that show the male partner in sexual action and without mythological disguise are rare in Western art. The problem is not misogyny but asymmetry. Even modern and avant-garde artists perpetuate traditional conceptions that equate culture and intellect with man, and sexuality and passivity with women. A change only occurs in the 1990s with artists confusing such conceptions. Traditional art history has suppressed the eroticizing effects of erotic art, although the boundary between art and pornography continues to be reframed.

Journal

Art in Translation – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 1, 2012

Keywords: sexuality and gender in art; art and pornography; iconography of Danaë; Titian; Rembrandt; Courbet; Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon; Gustav Klimt; Marcantonio Raimondi; Judith Chicago; Matthew Barney; Women’s Movement

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