Fugitive pieces : exploring the boundaries of womanhood

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The research question of this thesis was: What is the nature of the socialboundaries that define women as a group, how has this been depicted throughoutthe ages and, more specifically, in the work of South African artists, VladimirTretchikoff and Irma Stern, and what comment does my own work seem to makeon these boundaries? The study used an analytical approach to pursue thesequestions, while the works of art were analysed according to the levels ofinterpretation suggested by Panofsky and Dietrich, The aim of this research wasalso to analyse my own body of work more theoretically within the context ofpostmodern feminist thought to determine how it resonates with earlierassumptions regarding women. For this purpose a comparison was made between,on the one hand, what Tretchikoff and Stern's respective depictions of womenreveal about traditional conventions that hold women captive and, on the other,how my own work seems to question the boundaries that society imposes onwomen.Both Tretchikoff and Stern were successful enough to raise public consciousnesson issues that concerned female subjugation. Seemingly for very differentreasons, however, they remained apathetic to the quest for women's liberation.The study shows that Tretchikoff's work reflects a blatant disregard of theidentities and social realities of his models, and romanticises their constraintsinstead. Stern, on the other hand, could not have been unaware of the societallimitations imposed on women. Yet she chose to remain aloof. While she seemedto be able to move masculine requirements and the demands of society to thebackground to depict women as natural and almost free of stereotype in some ofher works, she cannot be seen to have made a major contribution to the liberationof women. In contrast, I have found many similarities throughout the studybetween feminist thought of the Second Wave and the thought processes mirroredin my art.In addition to the expected outcome, the study has shown that it is possible totrace developments in feminist thought in art.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University