In our last three films (including the first half of "Camille Claudel,") we've seen artistic creation constructed in terms of gender. "Belly of an Architect" inverts (subverts?) traditional ideas of gender, "Artemisia" plays into them, and we haven't decided yet about "Camille Claudel" (although we did observe that Claudel's story is very much also Rodin's). What can the two latest readings contribute to your thinking about how gender is linked with art in these movies? Are women associated with nature and men with culture? (Ortner) Are compulsive looking and touching, and eroticism identified with female art-making? (Felleman) Due by the end of the day Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Felleman’s article discusses how the films “Artemisia” and “Camille Claude” depict art as a product of love. Felleman states that “Art is shown as the progeny of sexual passion in these films, and the nature of the artistic relationship- its romantic, psychosocial, and sexual aspects- suggests something about larger issues relating to the experience of film”(28). She always makes a good point in the relationships between characters in the film stating that the films construct a prototypical artistic relationship between white, heterosexual men and women. Felleman’s article also regards to the fact that in these films, a young woman artist is apprenticed to an older male( a teacher in these two films) and a relationship of power and gender that is at the same time entirely realistic and profoundly mythic. She thoroughly goes over that these two films are based on the stories of “real” historical female artists. Felleman discusses the film Artemisia in regards to gender and artistic development and creation. She says that “ the film implicitly attributes Artemisia’s Portrait of a Gonfaloniere to her father, portraying her as his assistant”(29). The truth behind it is that she was the one who painted the portrait but being a women, the film lessened her abilities by portraying her as the assistant. Another outrageous addition to the film is the incorrectness of the inspiration for each of her pieces. It is quite clear that Artemisia’s pain and suffering that she experienced from her rape trail was the catalyst for many of her pro-feminine works including Judith slaying Holofernes. The director of the film Merlet displays a scene an erotic scene between Tassi and Artemisia as the inspiration for the composition’s placement, when this was not the case. Felleman concludes her discussion of Artemisia by stating that. The film boldly sexualizes art, “ constantly collapsing artistic sensuality and human sexuality through scenes in which models become sexual objects, artistic compositions become sexual dramas, and visceral responses to artistic images slip into images of pornographic titillation”(30). Her article does make it apparent that compulsive looking and touching, and eroticism identifies with the female artist’s creativity, both in Artemisia and Camille Claudel. Felleman adds that Camille Claudel portrays her, her passion for sculpture and her relationship with Rodin, its demise and her ultimate descent into madness. She states that the relationship between Claudel and Rodin is seen as fueled by their “mud lust” or love for their sculpting that makes them filthy. As we discussed in class, the time that they spent together in the film greatly impacted their works, which appear to go together and “share formal and stylistic affinities, but also are deeply interpenetrating hetero-erotic themes”(Felleman 33).
Sherry Ortner’s article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” discusses the notions that much of “the creativity of anthropology derives from the tension between two sets of demands: that we explain human universals, and that we explain cultural particulars”(67). Ortner article is centered around the notion that woman’s placement (their authority, placement and treatment) in society differs from culture to culture, and over different periods in history.Ortner attempts to expose the underlying logic of cultural thinking that assumes the inferiority of women. She thoroughly discusses the role that nature and culture are connected to gender, meaning that women are associated with nature whereas men are linked to culture. She poses the question as to “Why is woman seen as closer to nature?” stating that it begins, clearly, with the body and the natural procreative functions specific to women alone, and also woman’s physiology as seen to closer to nature.
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