Genders And Art History Essay

“Gender and Art History”
As a normal everyday guy, I picture an “artist” as a male figure.   The reason I think this way is because a general art education always gives you several different examples of famous “male” artist, and very little female examples. All the paintings I know the names of, that generally everyone knows the names of are done by a male artist. This would naturally put the image of a male artist figure in my head. I believe this has a lot to do with the way males and females were perceived in history. Today in the American society males and females are seen as equal, neither better than the other. Not too long ago white males were considered to be higher, and more important than everyone else. Females were seen as mothers, or a “housewife” who basically took care of the kids and the household chores. They were probably not taken serious when they created their own artwork.
A lot of people consider gender and sex to be defined as the same thing, but actually its not. Sex is whether one is male or female. Gender is described as the difference between masculinity, and femininity. Generally speaking though males normally have masculine traits, and females have feminine traits. This does not mean that a man cannot have feminine traits, and vice versa. Historical art is considered to have mostly masculine traits. I believe this is due to the fact that mostly men were recognized as exceptional artist.
Sexuality plays an important role in art when talking about gender. When one possesses masculine traits, there art often portrays feelings and sexual desires for the female race. When one possesses feminine feelings, there art often portrays feeling and sexual desires for the male race. Heterosexual feelings are believed to be highly accepted in art pieces, but this is different when Homosexual feelings are portrayed in art work. It is believed that some of Andy Warhol’s art work is not in the spotlight because of the arts homosexual nature. This...