Hello!
Sorry it has been a long time since my last post, i have taken a creative break over the dark winter months.
Not a complete break however as i have been drawing and thinking and visiting exhibitions and galleries.
I visited the Picasso museum in Paris recently. I was inspired by his female portraits and intrigued to learn about his complex relationships with the women in his life. His first wife Olga KhoKhlova left him immediately (1935) when she heard of the woman ( Marie-Therese Walter) he had been seeing for 8 years with out her knowledge. This same year Picasso met and embarked on a relationship with Dora Maar (a poet and artist herself) she was of course, also to become one of Picasso's most prominent Muses. The women in Picasso's life were deeply affactedby him and his actions, 2 having suffered with various mental health issues during their relationships with him. One - Marie-Therese killed herself shortly after he died. I couldn't help but think of how these situations must have affected Picasso (and the women in his life) personally, his view of women and in turn how this impacted his work.
This made me consider further all the ways in which women have been depicted through art and especially through drawing and painting by men. (Matisse, Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Henry Moore, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin etc.) And by comparison how women have been depicted by women. (Tracey Emin, Marlene Dumas, Kiki Smith, Paula Rego, Louise Bourgeois, Gillian Wearing, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, Jenny Saville, Alice Neel, Sophie Calle, Sarah Lucas).
Currently i am re-exploring art works featuring women and studying them in as much detail as possible. I will keep you up dated on my explorations.
Juliet X
