(29th May 2011)
The tradition of male artists painting women, who are usually referred to as their 'muse', it's been going on for a long time. I think the motivation to paint while on a polite level is an acknowledgement of beauty is also very much an opportunity to simply savour the experience of attraction (which is just as likely to be rudimentary as any more refined feeling). The female model allows the male to engage with her as a visual object that stimulates feelings of desire, and to metamorphose that response into an aesthetic problem which is resolved into an artwork.
For me, being (rather than seeing) the female muse seems an obvious development. The challenge then becomes one of how to resolve various almost intractable physical problems in order to metamorphose into the same object of desire, and to then make an image of oneself.
The process is more problematic as it transgresses various socially accepted codes of behavour - if you are a male painter would you rather admit you paint nudes or dress up as a woman? - and not least of which is any resulting confusion in a viewer should they have an unwary response to the 'femaleness' of the final image, only to discover it is illusory.
The tradition of male artists painting women, who are usually referred to as their 'muse', it's been going on for a long time. I think the motivation to paint while on a polite level is an acknowledgement of beauty is also very much an opportunity to simply savour the experience of attraction (which is just as likely to be rudimentary as any more refined feeling). The female model allows the male to engage with her as a visual object that stimulates feelings of desire, and to metamorphose that response into an aesthetic problem which is resolved into an artwork.
For me, being (rather than seeing) the female muse seems an obvious development. The challenge then becomes one of how to resolve various almost intractable physical problems in order to metamorphose into the same object of desire, and to then make an image of oneself.
The process is more problematic as it transgresses various socially accepted codes of behavour - if you are a male painter would you rather admit you paint nudes or dress up as a woman? - and not least of which is any resulting confusion in a viewer should they have an unwary response to the 'femaleness' of the final image, only to discover it is illusory.