Ben Sims

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Anderson, Kim

Keywords

Masculinity, Art, Painting

Area of Concentration

Art

Abstract

This Thesis, Group Aggression, is an investigation into the tension within the male painter between his socialized gender identity and the feminist critique of painting. The studio work that accompanies this paper is a visual exploration of the performance of masculinity, mediated predominantly through the painted male figure. It is accompanied by a brief survey of contemporary male artists working with the figure and how my work engages with the discourses within them. The paper establishes the formation of patriarchal domination over women through the lens of the fraternal social contract. This pattern of gendered domintion is then traced from Judith Butler's theories on the performativity of gender into the world of art, and especially painting. Using feminist theories surrounding the male gaze and the critique of the subject/object positions in representation, tensions are shown to manifest in the male painter. Ultimately, I argue that the tension between the feminist polemic of the twenty-first century and a long tradition of normative masculinity should be the primary concern of any male painter.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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