CHENNAI: Where are the women? Look around; they are there and yet, not quite there. All our public spaces — our streets and our buildings have a good sprinkling of women no doubt, but it is only when you look beyond that fleeting glimpse does realisation dawn that the spaces that really matter have excluded them — our history books, our collective memories, our power centres or our decision making bodies. As Virginia Woolf once quoted, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”; and countless women continue to remain so.
Art, most people assume, must have been one of those rare arenas that women were unconditionally allowed into. It clearly should have been considered a homely, harmless pastime to indulge in. It is true that women were allowed to be traditionally associated with domestic handicrafts like embroidery and quilting while the grander forms of painting and sculpture were generally reserved for men. And for those few women who did wield the brush, they were encouraged only to touch on pleasant topics of domesticity that embodied feminine traits. Of course, they had to be modest too. Anything else was a man’s domain.
And Art Education? Now, that was an impossible dream. The only formal training in the arts that a woman could ever hope for was to perhaps grow up in a household with a father who painted and was generously willing to teach her all that he knew. Though art academies mushroomed, women were not admitted until the late 19th century. And even when they were, women were not allowed to attend life-drawing classes with nude models as it was considered inappropriate and this denied them the access to study human anatomy, one of the most crucial aspects in painting or sculpture.
If women could not train with male models, there was nothing to stop them from studying their own bodies, and change how women were portrayed in art. A fine example is the painting of the female body in ‘Danae’, a painting from 1612 by Artemisia Gentileschi which shows extreme skill in the execution of the creases and swells, depicting a brilliant understanding of how a woman’s body settles, whereas the same subject painted by her father who trained her, Orazio Gentileschi, titled ‘Danae and the Shower Of Gold’, though perfect in the portrayal of the objects in the scene, falters with regard to the unrealistic representation of the folds in the woman’s body.
Despite a few women artists having successful careers especially as portrait artists, most of them faded into obscurity after their death and many of their paintings were attributed to men. Judith Leyster was a well-respected artist in the 17th century but was quickly forgotten after her passing. Many of her paintings, including one at the prestigious Louvre museum, were considered to be done by the Dutch artist Frans Hals who practised during the same period. Perhaps it was easier to accept that genius was a man’s birthright! Hans Hofman, the famous German-American painter had once remarked, “This is so good. You would not know it was done by a woman”’ on seeing the work of Lee Krasner, often referred to as Mrs. Jackson Pollock, though being an artist in her own right.
Much progress may have been made since that remark as the world inches towards gender equality but the truth is that this attitude still influences the way anything done by a woman is perceived even today. As we pick and choose women from all walks of life to honour on a glittering stage for their achievements that the world miraculously wakes up to on every International Women’s Day, let us also remember all those women in history whose work and accomplishments have been overlooked, undervalued, pushed out of the pages of history and simply forgotten.
TINA BLAU
Growing up in the 19th century when art education was denied to women, Austrian artist Tina Blau was taught to paint by her father. Though well-known for her landscape paintings, her gender earned her a lot of criticism with her male counterparts refusing to accept her paintings on the grounds that no woman had the ability to paint with such finesse and accused her of having been guided by a man. The list of unsung female artists can go on and still would not contain those who have not been allowed to even leave a trace behind. To think that everything is fair in the current world is unmistakably an illusion.
A group of anonymous female artists calling themselves the Guerilla Girls have staged protests for decades, fighting for equality in the arts. From the alarming difference in the number of artworks by men and women in museums to the prices that male artists command which a woman artist can only aspire for, gender discrimination exists in every form. Perhaps it is impossible to rewrite history by going back to the pages of art history books and inserting the missing and forgotten women artists. But it certainly is possible to celebrate them now. Their sheer determination to fight against all odds in a conservative patriarchal society and pursue their dream has helped a million other women in the years after to believe in their dreams too.
MANGALA BAYI THAMPURATTY
There are none who have not heard of India’s celebrated artist, Raja Ravi Varma. His sister, Mangala Bayi, an equally accomplished painter, remains lost in obscurity. Born in 1866 into the Kilimanoor royal family, Mangala Bayi had to practise art within the confines of the conservative inhibitions of the times. She had her own working space inside the palace and it could well be said that she was one of the first Indian women artists of the 19th century who had a studio of her own! She was given a fixed time to watch her brother paint and could clear her doubts only when permitted to speak.
Her marriage ended this arrangement, as married women were not allowed to interact or even come in the vicinity of their brothers. And yet, she pursued her art with an unmatched passion and Ravi Varma is even said to have mistaken her painting as his. This was the case for years with a few more of her paintings, like ‘Alms Giving ‘, having been mistaken as Ravi Varma’s creations. Social hurdles notwithstanding, she continued to paint till the age of 84. Regrettably, only about five of her paintings can be viewed by the public today while Mangala Bayi herself remains invisible from any discourse on art.
GIULIA LAMA
Giulia Lama was an Italian painter from the early 18th century about whom there is barely any information, in spite of her successful career during her time. She was perhaps the first woman to study male and female nudes and make 200 drawings based on that study. However, her success did not go well with the male artists who were enraged by the competition from a woman. They persecuted her by constantly ridiculing her ugly physical features. The fact that most of her works were attributed to renowned male artists of the period is proof enough of her excellence in art. Lately, efforts are being taken to reattribute and acknowledge her greatness.
HARRIET POWERS
Harriet Powers was an African-American slave who transformed biblical and local stories as well as astronomical occurrences into beautiful quilts. In 1886, she displayed her Bible Quilt at the Cotton Fair in Georgia, which caught the eye of a local art teacher who eventually bought it from her. Her work was considered unique and led to further commissions to make quilts. Her art was forgotten for most part of the 20th century and only two of her quilts have endured to this day. Ignored until recently, most experts today consider her to be one of the finest quilt artists of the 19th century.
SAHIFA BANU
Mughal miniature paintings as we know it, were all made by men. Only a handful of women practised art as a profession during the Mughal period. Sahifa Banu was one of the few female miniaturists during Emperor Jehangir’s reign. Her portrayals were unique, being from the female perspective and devoid of the male gaze. For instance, in “The Lady paints a self-portrait while her attendant faces her holding a mirror”, she depicts the female quarters, a place where males did not have access and consequently had to resort to imagined versions of it. Unfortunately, she has almost faded from documented histories with only a mere three or four paintings surviving that can be traced back to her.