It turns out that I managed to achieve the work I set out for myself again… however, that perplexing feeling where the bubble tea and the tomato sandwich start to mingle and dance their way back up because I’m so confused about my research–well, yeah, I’m having that one.
I visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this week, and felt a little bit topsy turvy. I was attracted to the Frank Lloyd Wright display (of course disappointed that I wasn’t accepted for the Wingspread Conference of my dreams and taking some time to lament), I was attracted to all of the paintings featuring females as mothers and angels… I was attracted to the many renderings of fruit and insects and to some intricate woodblock prints. And then it hit me–I was wandering aimlessly–looking for a vapor somewhere inside of a cloud.
Also this week, I took some time to read a few papers out of the Mellon-Mays Journal from 2007… It seemed so very diverse at first–but really, there were an overwhelming number of papers on topics pertaining to race and ethnicity in one way or another. It made me feel that switching back to my original topic would be a good idea–I would probably be able to produce an award winning paper and it would be a fantastic experience. But, in a strange way, I am content with my quiet and lonely spelunking–Books and articles on women in art… female bodies in art and the question of hair present every day both in the mirror and in Kahlo’s portraits–which occupy my minds eye at so many turns.
Why after a horrible divorce with Rivera does Kahlo paint herself with short hair (“Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair”)–especially considering her other work–she was no stranger to blood or violent images for communication of her pain–? We can compare another of her paintings “Just a Few Small Pricks” and conjure up a relationship between representation of the body and pain… I do wonder about this aspect of femininity in art–while a concern of most critics is found in the nude, often voluptuous figures–the rendering of skin and faces, as well as particular feminine, or stereotyped female, gestures–I wonder who is writing about the locks. It seems that styling of hair, and from a broader stance, the rules that govern appearance and gender assignments, really do matter in society–and matter in art… At least enough for Kahlo to generate many Self-Portraits with altered hairstyles at seemingly significant points in her life with what seems to also be direct intentions beyond the exploration of her appearance.
So, on top of the MIA and the Mellon Journal, I’ve made progress in the Guerrilla Girls Bedside Reader. I’m sure the Guerrilla Girls would be proud to know that the Bedside reader is my very first art history textbook… I am uncorrupted… so any other text I read now will challenge my anti-racist anti-sexist art education. Of course, there is more than I can fully digest on the topics at hand, but I’ve still found Chapter 10 of “On Art, Women and Society” to be enriching and challenging… It is a book written on, generally, exactly what I want to know.
This is, week three in a nutshell–I cannot believe how rapidly this summer is scooting by.
