Appropriation in relation to art is defined as the practice of reworking the images or styles of earlier works to provoke critical re-evaluation and to present them in new contexts. The reinterpretation of well-known works has long been a tradition in fine art, rooted in the renaissance artists’ varying versions of such iconic images as the
Last Supper or
Madonna and Child. Operating within a more modern context, the images in this series similarly represent the appropriation and re-contextualiztion of classical western paintings.
There is one distinct category of European painting in which women are the principal, recurring subject: the nude. In
Susannah and the Elders by Tintoretto for example, the viewer joins the elders in spying on Susannah in her bath, while Susannah herself looks in a mirror. The mirror is used to represent the supposed vanity of women to hypocritically nullify that her nakedness was painted for the pleasure of others. The artist paints the naked woman because the viewer enjoys looking at her; however by placing a mirror in her hands the artist morally condemns the woman as vain. Such is the concept of the male gaze in art.
The series
Patrimony is a modern re-presentation of women from art history, using “Pin-ups” and pop-culture images of the 20
th Century to deconstruct the way in which women are traditionally represented in art.
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Sacred and Profane Love by Titian
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