Masters Degrees (Visual Arts)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Visual Arts) by browse.metadata.advisor "Groenewald, J."

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    Fugitive pieces : exploring the boundaries of womanhood
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-03) Keith, Marlise; Gunter, E.; Groenewald, J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research question of this thesis was: What is the nature of the social boundaries that define women as a group, how has this been depicted throughout the ages and, more specifically, in the work of South African artists, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Irma Stern, and what comment does my own work seem to make on these boundaries? The study used an analytical approach to pursue these questions, while the works of art were analysed according to the levels of interpretation suggested by Panofsky and Dietrich, The aim of this research was also to analyse my own body of work more theoretically within the context of postmodern feminist thought to determine how it resonates with earlier assumptions regarding women. For this purpose a comparison was made between, on the one hand, what Tretchikoff and Stern's respective depictions of women reveal about traditional conventions that hold women captive and, on the other, how my own work seems to question the boundaries that society imposes on women. Both Tretchikoff and Stern were successful enough to raise public consciousness on issues that concerned female subjugation. Seemingly for very different reasons, however, they remained apathetic to the quest for women's liberation. The study shows that Tretchikoff's work reflects a blatant disregard of the identities and social realities of his models, and romanticises their constraints instead. Stern, on the other hand, could not have been unaware of the societal limitations imposed on women. Yet she chose to remain aloof. While she seemed to be able to move masculine requirements and the demands of society to the background to depict women as natural and almost free of stereotype in some of her works, she cannot be seen to have made a major contribution to the liberation of women. In contrast, I have found many similarities throughout the study between feminist thought of the Second Wave and the thought processes mirrored in my art. In addition to the expected outcome, the study has shown that it is possible to trace developments in feminist thought in art.