For as long as art has existed, women have been the central subject. Depicted historically by male painters through the male gaze, women have been admired as objects of desire and of beauty. In past centuries, the artistic world was largely configured by a hypermasculine scene of male artists and art collectors. We have the great masters of the classicalist tradition, like Rembrandt, to thank for the mythically inspired, idealized trope of the female nude. Women in this context were seen but remained unheard.
With the emancipation of women at the turn of the 19th century, came a shift in this mentality in the world of art. Nowadays we see as many female artists as we see of their male peers. What once was a women's education, to take up embroidery, painting and other artistic pursuits are now no longer viewed as gender-biased activities. In the 21st century, contemporary female artists such as Tracey Emin, Diane Arbus, and Cindy Sherman have re-explored the female subject through the lens of the feminist movement. Artists such as Emin have reimagined the nude through a woman's own eye. The woman has therefore transcended from object behind the lens of the camera or artist's paintbrush to subject and authority of her own image.
These paintings of women by women vary in medium and subject matter but are uniquely feminine in their depiction owing to the fact that no two women are the same. Artsper invites you to explore the female gaze through a variety of portraits and scenes of everyday life with women as the main subjects. Go check out our selection of contemporary female artists such as Charlotte Abramow, Sofiya Akimova and Lorna Simpson at the front of this new artistic campaign: art of women by women for women!
