Tag Archives: painting

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES

CREATING YOUR SELF

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Alex Alemany-GB Shaw

( See more Magical Paintings by the Spanish artist, Alex Alemany  on his website — http://www.alexalemany.com )

QUOTE:  George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems with a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Issues which engaged Shaw’s attention included education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.

He was most angered by what he perceived as the exploitation of the working class. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles.  Shaw was noted for expressing his views in uncompromising language, whether on vegetarianism (branding his own pre-vegetarian self a “cannibal”), the development of the human race (his own brand of eugenics).

~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw

 

 

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES, MOVING PICTURES, POETIC NONSENSE, SOUNDS, UNIVERSES

MALE PERCEPTION OF FEMALES

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Here is a video montage of Female Faces portrayed in paintings by Western (male) artists during the past 500 years. Although the faces portrayed were thought to be “beautiful” by the MEN who painted them, the reality of their “beauty” was very short-lived.  By the age of 18, most women were “middle-aged” and “matronly”  If a girl was not already married and bearing children by this time, her chances of surviving — in the lower economic classes  — were not very good.  The girl who was not “pretty enough” to be married was doomed to be supported by her father, or other family members, until she was “lucky” enough to find a husband, or until she died of old age or disease.  There were no “jobs” or “careers” for women outside the bedroom and household.

If Females had painted portraits woman during the 500 year period shown in this video, what would they look like?   Oh, but of course, females were not PERMITTED to paint… or read… or become educated… or go to school…. or discuss ideas in the presence of men.  During the 500 year period during which these portraits were being painted by MEN, the women being portrayed were really little more than slaves, who were literally the owned property of their fathers or husbands.  Women were expected to endure a life of child bearing, domestic drudgery and mind-numbing “female” work, like cleaning, washing, cooking, sewing, and having sex whenever their spouse demanded it of them (without any birth control, or abortion.)  So, in retrospect, I think we must realize that the male view of women has not really been very “beautiful”.