Eva Gonzalèz: Modernity Through a Woman’s Lens
Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Artist Statement
In contrast to critics who have categorized nineteenth-century French female Impressionist artists as derivative or influenced by their male counterparts, I argue that Spanish-born artist Eva Gonzalès initiated a distinctive vision. Building on art historian Griselda Pollock’s discoveries of woman artists’ unique perspective in relation to spatiality, and their reworking of depictions of the female body, I argue that Eva Gonzalès explores modernity through a woman’s perspective and through the empowered female subjects in her paintings. Her depiction of nineteenth-century female experience is related to Pollock’s analysis of space: what locations women were permitted, how women artists used formal space in their art, and how the gaze was incorporated into their artwork. Gonzalès captured moments of modernity through a “woman’s lens” in scenes at the millinery shop and at the opera to explore the unique ways a nineteenth-century woman experienced the city. Gonzalès’s scenes were different from her male contemporaries; her women are assertive, creative, intelligent, and above all, demand a certain respect.
Location
DeRosa University Center, Room 211 A/B
Start Date
2-5-2009 9:00 AM
End Date
2-5-2009 12:30 PM
Eva Gonzalèz: Modernity Through a Woman’s Lens
DeRosa University Center, Room 211 A/B
In contrast to critics who have categorized nineteenth-century French female Impressionist artists as derivative or influenced by their male counterparts, I argue that Spanish-born artist Eva Gonzalès initiated a distinctive vision. Building on art historian Griselda Pollock’s discoveries of woman artists’ unique perspective in relation to spatiality, and their reworking of depictions of the female body, I argue that Eva Gonzalès explores modernity through a woman’s perspective and through the empowered female subjects in her paintings. Her depiction of nineteenth-century female experience is related to Pollock’s analysis of space: what locations women were permitted, how women artists used formal space in their art, and how the gaze was incorporated into their artwork. Gonzalès captured moments of modernity through a “woman’s lens” in scenes at the millinery shop and at the opera to explore the unique ways a nineteenth-century woman experienced the city. Gonzalès’s scenes were different from her male contemporaries; her women are assertive, creative, intelligent, and above all, demand a certain respect.