Undressing beauty: (de)constructions of the gaze around the female body in art
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5965/2175234617412025e0007Keywords:
feminist art, contemporary art, body in art, gender studies, artistic nudeAbstract
In the tradition of art history, the female body, depicted as an artistic nude, has been visually constructed as an object of contemplation and symbolically linked to ideals of beauty. This visual representation, shaped by a masculine and patriarchal perspective, has contributed to the construction and perpetuation of ways of seeing that associate women with specific categories of beauty, reinforcing the objectification of their bodies. This article analyzes, through a theoretical and critical approach to art history, how these visualities operate in the Western context and how they were subverted from the 1960s onward. To this end, it examines Vagina Painting (1965) by Shigeko Kubota and Interior Scroll (1975) by Carolee Schneemann. These artists challenged the canons of Western art by proposing a corporeal praxis that rejects the traditional conception of beauty associated with the female body. The analysis demonstrates that, from the 1960s onward, women artists restructured the relationship between art, body, and politics, using their own physicality as a means of resistance and subversion against the normative structures of Western art.
Downloads
References
ARTASIAPACIFIC. The Essential Works of Shigeko Kubota. 28 abr. 2021. Disponível em: https://artasiapacific.com/people/the-essential-works-of-shigeko-kubota. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
ARTLAND MAGAZINE. Female Iconoclasts: Shigeko Kubota, the Mother of Video Art. Disponível em: https://magazine.artland.com/shigeko-kubota-mother-video-art/. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
BEAUVOIR, Simone de. O segundo sexo. 1. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1949.
BERGER, John. Modos de ver. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1999.
BORZELLO, Frances. The naked nude. 1 ed. Londres: Thames & Hudson, 2012.
CLARK, Kenneth. The nude: a study in ideal form. 1 ed. Nova Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1956.
DEUTSCHE, Rosalyn. El rudo museo de Louise Lawler. Transversal, jun. 2006.
Disponível em: http://eipcp.net/transversal/0106/deutsche/es. Acesso em: 16 mai. 2013.
DOUGLAS, Mary. Pureza e perigo. Campinas: Editora Perspectiva, 1966.
GOOGLE. Pesquisa sobre [Vagina Painting]. Disponível em: https://www.google.com. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
HASLAM & HASLAM. Fat, glutonny and sloth: obesity in literature, art and
medicine. 1 ed. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009.
HAWLEY, Elizabeth. Shigeko Kubota. MoMa. 2016. Disponível em: https://www.moma.org/artists/3277. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
MANCHESTER, Elizabeth. Interior Scroll. Artwork Information. Tate, nov. 2003. Disponível em: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schneemann-interior-scroll-p13282. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
MATESCO, Viviane. Corpo-objeto. In: Encontro Nacional de Pesquisadores em Artes Plásticas, 20, 2011, Rio de Janeiro. Anais do Encontro da Associação Nacional de Pesquisadores em Artes Plásticas, Rio de Janeiro: ANPAP, 2011, p. 1-11.
MELLO, Júlia. O corpo gordo: diálogos poéticos em Elisa Queiroz e Fernanda Magalhães. 2015. 168 p. Dissertação (Mestrado em Artes) - Programa de Pós- Graduação em Artes da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, 2015.
MELLO, Júlia. O corpo gordo e o grotesco: gênero, política e transgressão na arte contemporânea. 1 ed. São Paulo: Dialética, 2024.
MOMA. Shigeko Kubota’s Self-Portrait. 13 out. 2021. Disponível em: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/646. Acesso em: 29 nov. 2024.
MULVEY, Laura. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, v. 16, n. 3, p. 6-18, 1975.
NEAD, Lynda. The female nude: art, obscenity and sexuality. 1 ed. Londres:
Routledge, 1992.
NOCHLIN, Linda. Offbeat and Naked. Artnet.com, nov. 1999. Disponível em:
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/FEATURES/nochlin/nochlin11-5- 99.asp. Acesso: 21 jun. 2018.
SCHNEEMANN, Carolee. The obscene body/politic. Art Journal, v. 50, n. 4,
Censorship II, p. 28-35. Nova Iorque: College Art Association, 1991.
SCHNEEMANN, Carolee. “Interior Scroll [Pergaminho Interior]”. Trad. de Ana Ban. eRevista Performatus, Inhumas, ano 2, n. 8, jan. 2014. ISSN: 2316-8102
SENNETT, Richard. Carne e pedra: o corpo e a cidade na civilização ocidental. 3 ed. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo: Editora Record, 2003.
SMITH, Terry. Contemporary art: world currents. 1 ed. Nova Jersey: Pearson, 2011.
WOLF, Naomi. O mito da beleza: como as imagens de mulheres são usadas contra as mulheres. São Paulo: Objetiva, 1992.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Júlia Almeida de Mello, Rosely Kumm, José Cirillo

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
The articles published by the magazine are free to use, intended for academic and non-commercial applications. Copyright is all assigned to the magazine. The articles whose authors are identified represent the expression from the point of view of their authors and not the official position of Palíndromo Magazine. The author (s) commits to whenever they publish material referring to the article published in Palíndromo mention this publication as follows:
This article was originally published by Palíndromo magazine in its volume (place the volume), number (place the number) in the year of (place the year) and can be accessed at: http://www.revistas.udesc.br/index.php/palindromo