Absence / Presence

A dialogue with the history of art.

I have always been interested in how women are and have been represented historically in the arts and in our visual culture. In the art historical canon women have primarily been portrayed as objects rather than subjects. The canon of art has been criticized for its lack of female artists and the widespread use of stereotypical images of women that perpetuate Western society’s conventional understanding of femininity. Even though the canon is criticized, it still exists. The imagery of the history is exhibited in every art museum in Europe. Can you get away from being the object of the gaze just by leaving the place?