Art and Beauty

Art and Beauty

Figure1.3,French performance artist

Orlan. Here Orlan is being “prepped”

for surgery (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5)Add caption

 Fig 2-11 Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus c.1482 (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5)Add caption

 

             Orlan is a French performance artist, who has a goal to create in herself the pinnacle of human beauty as set forth by Western art (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5).  Her goal is to transform each of her facial feature to reflect the “forehead of the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo Da Vinci’s, the mouth of Boucher’s work Europa and the chin of Venus of  Sandro Bottichelli’s  painting The Birth of Venus( 1946)” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5).  The artist states “she will not stop until she is as close as possible to a composite sketch of ideal western beauty” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5).

Orlan creates an artistic event transforming an operating room into a drama in which she has the star role.  “Surgeons substitute customs in place of green scrubs and Orlan wears a black evening gown as she recites work on psychoanalysis instead of lying on a surgical table in a hospital gown” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 5).   Her involvement with the performance does add strength to her work demonstrating her commitment to the goal of beauty, but I believe it is a bit drastic to permanently change one’s body in the name of art especially since beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  What is perceived by one to be beautiful is not by another’s standards.

Venus of Willendorf, ca 24,000 - 22,000 BCE

(found in current day Austria, small stone

figurine that measures roughly 4 inches tall)

(Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 271)

 

Add Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque 1814 (http://lorenaybe.hubpages.com/hub/La-Grande-Odalisque-an-unusual-woman)

 When looking and discussing a piece of are one uses the “language of art which consist of our visual and tactile expressions” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 27), describing the “visual elements line, shape, light, value, color, texture, space, time and motion” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 27).

           The Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture made of a stone medium portraying a nude woman.  It accentuates “fertility by the use of abstract drawing attention to the oversized breast, large abdomen and enlarged hips” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 271).

              La Grande Odalisque brings about the beauty of physical pleasure by use of a painting medium.  This painting portrays “odalisque (concubine) (http://lorenaybe.hubpages.com/hub/La-Grande-Odalisque-an-unusual-woman) accentuating the length of her back, signifying to the spectator the duties of a concubine.  Initially sensuality and mystery are evoked but upon a closer look of her g”aze a sense of duty is portrayed”(http://lorenaybe.hubpages.com/hub/La-Grande-Odalisque-an-unusual-woman). 

              In comparing the two art pieces the Venus of Willendorf with La Grande Odalisque, the line technique in The Venus of Willendorf is made up of a curved, accretive, forceful line whereas La Grande Odalisque lines are contoured giving the piece a third dimensional shape with a value of delicate elegance.  Color comparison of these two pieces are opposite, the Venus of Willendorf use of a neutral color beigh give way for the attention to be given to the accentuated body parts, whereas different shades of blue accentuate the beigh color portrayed as the skin of the Odalisque. 

As a spectator I am a little offended by the focus of both pieces of art, both pieces place focus on a single function of a woman. I imagine that each society differs as expressed by the insinuation of each piece.   In the Venus of Willendorf it is evident that much importance was place on family stressed by the over accentuating of a woman’s fertility anatomy parts, perhaps the viewed woman purpose solely as a means to procreation and felt this art work honored women.    

La Grande Odalisque was created when harems and concubines were widely accepted.  Perhaps “Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, Napoleon´s sister” (http://lorenaybe.hubpages.com/hub/La-Grande-Odalisque-an-unusual-woman) commissioned this piece to stress that women are not merely vehicles to physical pleasure, as can be seen by the gaze implying there is more than meets the eye.

Speculating from the fore mentioned three images (Orlan, Venus of Willendorf, and la Grande Odalisque) the idea of art and Beauty are strongly influenced by ideals, society and time era.  Orlan’s work places emphasis on physical facial beauty as depicted by western art, whereas Venus of Willendort accentuates the “female anatomy associated with fertility by abstracting the piece with oversized breast, a round abdomen and enlarged hips” (Fichner-Rathus, 2013, p. 271).  La Grande Odalisque seems to place emphasis on beauty of physical pleasure as denoted by the inviting glace from the woman depicted in the painting.    

References

Fichner-Rathus, L. (2013). Understanding Art (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Clark Baxter.

La Grande Odalisque  (http://lorenaybe.hubpages.com/hub/La-Grande-Odalisque-an-unusual-woman)