Art and Women Semester Project

Ayo Haruna

Art and Women

Professor Doris Cacoilo

April 3rd, 2016

Art and Women Semester Project.

Summary :

My final project for the class has been completed actually with editing the last phase I have to get through. I walked around the Newark and New Brunswick campus at Rutgers and asked students to name male artists and female artist they might know of.

This class has taught me important lesson on patriarchy and the way women are under appreciated in the world and in this case when it comes to Art. We learned about the male gaze and how women are sometimes exploited when it comes to their body.

So many men artist or philosophers are referred to as the genius of their time but so many few women are recognized for their work and contributions to the world.

Aim : The aim of my project is to reiterate what we learned in class about people not knowing of many female artist. I am focusing on the students on campus and asking them questions on the female artist they know if they know any at all . After this I highlighted a female artist who is enrolled in the art school at Rutgers New Brunswick. I interviewed her, asking about which artist has influenced her, while also giving her the opportunity to showcase her works.

Steps :  I walked around campus with my video camera and simply asked people to name a few women artist they might know of, then I asked them to name male artist they knew of as well. The idea is to gauge how many males artists versus female artist that students know of. The second phase included a personal interview of a female artist on campus and making her the subject of my project. I made sure to capture various shots of the works she’s done. I asked her questions like which women artist have influenced her as well as what motivates her to pick up a pencil or pen to draw.

My semester project will focus overall on highlighting one single female student artist, while also  shedding light on the discrepancies that we still have in today's society. Some of the footage I have showed how much students around this campus both Newark and New Brunswick know about female artists.

  

The problem I encountered is the fact that when I asked students to name artists, some tend to use musicians, actors and actresses more than they used actual fine art artists who painted portraits or made sculptures which I wanted them to actually name.

Chadwick, Whitney. 2012. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson.

Guerrilla Girls. 1998. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Books