1. Exploring Art:A Global,Thematic Approach
Chapter 7
Reproduction and Sexuality

2. The Promise of Fertility
• Art as sympathetic magic in the promise
of fertility
– Fertility gods and goddesses – Mother
Goddesses from the Paleolithic and
Neolithic era
– Fertility figures – to aid in human
reproduction
– Rituals – mystical images and enactments

3. Henry Moore, Draped Reclining Mother and Baby, 1983 bronze 104.5’ Fukuoka
Art Museum, Japan
Moore references both modern and ancient art—visual expression of human
reproduction

4. Venus of Willendorf, Austria, c.15,000-20,000BCE 4 3/8”
Idol from Amorgos, Cycladic Islands off Greece, 25,000-23,000BCE marble 30”
Female burial figureFertility figure?

5. Venus ofWillendorf. Stone, 43/8" high.
Austria, c. 25,000–20,000 BCE. © Ali
Meyer/Corbis.
Venus of Willendorf is an icon of
prehistoric art. She is included in
introductory art history textbooks.
Being both female and nude, she
fitted perfectly into the patriarchal
construction of the history of art.
As the earliest known
representation, she became the
"first woman," acquiring a sort of
Ur-Eve identity that focused
suitably, from a patriarchal point
of view, on the fascinating reality
of the female body.

6. Cycladic/early Minoan: 2500-2000 BC
Female figure, c. 2500-2200 BCE
Art of the Ancient Aegean
Ancient peoples placed figurines like this
in grave sites. Their lack of eyes and
mouths--as well as their folded arms-- was
perhaps intended to depict death. Their
gender may indicate that they represented
deceased men's wives or a mother
goddess.
The size and style of Cycladic figurines
varies greatly. Some are among the
earliest naturalistic sculptures discovered
in the Mediterranean area. Others, like this
example, are highly abstract.

7. GodTe Rongo and HisThree Sons. Wood, 273/8"
Cook Islands, Polynesia, c. 1800–1900s.
The British Museum, London.
This male figure has three carved figures on the
chest and two on each of the arms. Only one
other similar figure is known, which has carved
figures on the chest and buttocks. An old label
describes the figure as a depiction of the
Rarotongan god Te Rongo and his three sons.
It has also been suggested that the figure
represents the Polynesian god of creation,
Tangaroa.
The large penis—virility.

8. Fertility and ritual

9. Dionysiac mystery frieze
Second style (antithesis of 1st
style)
Aim to dissolve walls…replace with illusion of
three-dimensional world…purely pictorial

10. Dionysiac mystery frieze Room 5, Pompeii, Italy ca. 60-50 B.C.E.

11. Bamana Female Figure. Wood and brass,
21" high. Mali,Africa, 1947.
Most fertility figures were likely
connected with now-lost rituals.
These figures were idealized youthful
females.They have prominent conical
breasts that project sharply from a
flattened chest, exaggerated buttocks,
and cylindrical arms, legs and torsos.
Young unmarried Bamana men use
nyeleni sculpture to represent the ideal
marriageable woman they hope to find
as a wife and partner.

12. An Asante legend holds that a woman named
Akua, who was barren, was instructed to
commission a small, female, child statue and to
care for the doll as if it were real. She did so, until
she conceived and successfully gave birth to a
female child.
The Akua'ba dolls are commissioned by women
wanting to conceive or desiring a healthy and
safe pregnancy of both male and female children.
"After the akua'ba is blessed by the fertility deity
in rites conducted by a priest, the women carries
it and treats it like a real child; she adorns it with
beads and earrings, 'nurses' it, and puts it to bed.
After a successful birth, a mother may give the
akua'ba doll to a daughter to play with or use it to
teach child care (Seiber and Walker 44). The doll
is female due to the matrilineage of the Asante
society. Women also desire female children to
help them with raising sibilinss and doing
household chores.
Akua'ba Fertility Figure

13. Primordial and Human Couples
• Explore the Dogon primordial couple
– The primordial couple epitomizes
– the ideal social pairing and
– commemorates the creation of the world.
• Human couples in creation myths
Primordial…existing at or before the beginning of time

14. Dogon Primordial Couple, Mali
This work's scale and complexity have led scholars
to suggest that it may have been created for display
at the funerals of influential Dogon men. The graphic
composition constitutes an eloquent statement
concerning the distinct and yet complementary roles
of male and female partners as a unit of life. With
understated elegance and an economy of details,
the artistic distills man and woman to a perfectly
integrated and harmonious union. One of the most
striking aspects of the representation is the degree
of bilateral symmetry that describes man and
woman as reflections of each other with delicate and
subtle departures that indicate their distinct
identities. The figures' elongated bodies are
depicted as a series of parallel vertical lines
traversed by horizontals that draw them together.
On the reverse side a small child clinging to the
female's back is balanced by a quiver on the back of
the male. That concluding pair of features
distinguishes their respective role as nurturer and
provider joined together to procreate and sustain
life.

15. Masaccio.
The Expulsion from Paradise, Italy, 1427. Fresco
Drama—anguish, pain, shame.
Masaccio modeled his figures using soft
contrasts of values and color.

16. Compare
Dogon Primordial Couple,
Mali, Africa, c. 19th-20th
century.
Masaccio.
The Expulsion from
Paradise, Italy, 1427.
Fresco.

17. Giovanni Arnolfini, a
prosperous Italian banker
who had settled in Bruges,
and his wife Giovanna
Cenami, stand side by side in
the bridal chamber, facing
towards the viewer.The
husband is holding out his
wife's hand.
“Johannes de Eyck fuit hic
1434 (Jan van Eyck was
present, 1434)
HUMAN COUPLES

20. • It is uncertain that the picture
depicts an actual marriage
ceremony.The Latin inscription
on the back wall, 'Jan van Eyck
was here/1434', has been
interpreted as the artist's
witness to their marriage, but
may simply attest to his
authorship of the painting,
• his creation of 'here'.
The mirror is the focal point of
the whole composition.

21. • The central motif of the
painting, the so-called
'joining of hands', has
long been recognized as
a special gesture with a
specific meaning. It has
been the subject of
debate for decades.

22. • Oranges placed on the
low table and the
windowsill are a reminder
of an original innocence,
of an age before sin.
Unless, that is, they are
not in fact oranges but
apples (it is difficult to be
certain), in which case
they would represent the
temptation of knowledge
and the Fall.

23. • The small dog
in the
foreground is
an emblem of
fidelity and
love.

24. • The clogs and
outdoor sandals
which the
couple have
removed might
be typical
wedding
presents, or
represent the
taking of shoes
in a sacred
precincts.

26. Menkaure and his Queen,
Dyn. IV c.2500 BCE
Son of Khafre, Grandson of Khufu.
Menkaure and his wife are idealized and
stylized, according to the Egyptian
cannon.
It was meant to mark a lifetime, meant
for posterity and spiritual presence—and
to transmit information to viewers in the
afterlife.
Pharaonic symbols:
Wedge-shaped ceremonial beard
Nemes
Kilt (shendjyt)

27. Menkaure and his Queen,
Dyn. IV c.2500 BCE

28. Lovemaking, Sexuality, Gender
• Images of ideal sexuality
• The feminine body and the gaze
• Abstracted sexual imagery

29. Depictions of Lovemaking
• Peruvian Moche pots
– Likely made by women
– Buried with the dead
• Ukiyo, “floating world” subject matter from Japan
– Shunga prints
• Jeff Koons’s pieces
– Blur the boundary between art and pop culture
• Hindu depictions from India

30. • The album “Poem of the Pillow” is a
masterpiece of erotic works by Utamaro.
• Ignoring stereotypical scenes, he uses a low
viewpoint and places the large figures so
they seem to expand beyond the frame.

31. Kitagawa Utamaro, Lovers in an upstairs room, from Uta makura ('Poem of the
Pillow'), a color woodblock print
Erotia—gently and intimately erotic—private moment of closeness
Interplay of pattern and line of the kimonos—echoes the intertwining of bodies

32. Made in Heaven 1989
Lithograph on paper on canvas
3180 x 6910 mm
Number 2 in an edition of 3
The billboard Made in Heaven and the Art Magazine Ads use
standard advertising methods and were made to publicize the
project. Koons reflects upon the power of consumer industries
and the aesthetics and culture of taste.

33. Krishna and Radha in a
Pavilion, India, from Punjab, c.
1760. Opaque watercolor on
paper, 11” X 7 1/4”.
Indian Love Legend
It is believed that Krishna
enchants the world, but Radha
enchants even Him.
The topic is the spiritual love
affair between the divine
Krishna and his devotee Radha.
Images of ideal erotic
sexuality were relatively
common in Indai

34. Loving couple (mithuna), Eastern Ganga
dynasty, 13th century
Orissa, India (Ferruginous stone; H. 72 in.)
Once part of the subsidiary decoration of a
Hindu temple facade, the figures of this
bejeweled couple embrace while peering
rapturously into each other's eyes.
Couples such as this pair are understood
to have multiple meanings, ranging from an
obvious celebration of life's pleasures to
the more metaphorical symbolism of a
human soul's longing for union with the
divine.

35. The Feminine Body and the Gaze
• Female nudes in Europe and the U.S. were
made for the male gaze
– Gaze completed sexual exchange implied in the
painting
• Females alone in the painting
– Subject “available,” allowing viewer to
“consume” with his gaze
• Ingres’ Grande Odalisque

36. Titian
Venus of Urbino
1538
oil on canvas
4 ft. x 5 ft. 6 in.

37. Ingres, Grande Odalisque, France, 1814
Nude Turkish harem woman—erotic image for European men

38. É douard Manet
Olympia
1863
oil on canvas
4 ft. 3 in. x 6 ft. 3 in.

39. LYNN HERSHMAN. Deep Contact.
Interactive computer-video
installation at the Museum of
Modern Art, San Francisco. USA,
1990. Courtesy of the Artist.
SEX, POLITICS,
CONSUMERISM
HOW MASS MEDIA USES
SEXUALITY IN WESTERN
CULTURE

40. • Barbara Kruger uses pronouns that are
gender neutral, with no fixed subject, to
imply that attitudes about sexuality (as well
as race) are not fixed by nature.

41. During the early 1980s Barbara Kruger
perfected a signature style, using cropped,
large-scale, black-and-white photographic
images juxtaposed with raucous, pithy, and
often ironic aphorisms, printed in Futura
Bold typeface against black, white, or deep
red text bars. The inclusion of personal
pronouns in works like Untitled (Your Gaze
Hits the Side of My Face) (1981) and
Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) (1987)
implicates viewers by confounding any
clear notion of who is speaking. These
rigorously composed mature works
function successfully on any scale. Their
wide distribution—under the artist’s
supervision—in the form of umbrellas, tote
bags, postcards, mugs, T-shirts, posters,
and so on, confuses the boundaries
between art and commerce and calls
attention to the role of the advertising in
public debate.

42. Kruger, 1989
Kruger voices
her opinion to protect women’s rights through an image that also raises issues of power,
patriarchy, stereotyping, and consumption.

43. Catherine Opie. Justin Bond. 1993.
Opie's methods and subjects are diverse,
ranging from portraits of transgendered
people to landscape and urban
photography, in both bold, rich colors and
black-and-white. Often turning her lens
upon the seemingly mundane.
Opie explores themes of sexual and
cultural identity, and how they're affected
by relationships.
Justin Bond…cross-dressing male whose
attire and hair suggest “good girl” and
sexual potential.

44. Abstracted Sexual Imagery
• Allusions to human body
– Georgia O’Keeffe
– Constantin Brancusi
– Louise Bourgeois

45. Georgia O’Keeffe. Grey Line
with Lavender and Yellow,
1923

46. Brancusi,
Torso of a Young Man I
1917
Polished bronze

47. “Organ-logic” (a term used by the art
historian Rosalind Krauss) refers to the
representation of an organ which stands
for the person who is significant in some
way to another person; this other person
is also represented by a body organ and
the two organs are united to make
something which signifies both people.

48. Louise Bourgeois, Blind Man's Bluff, 1984
Robert Mapplethorpe,
Louise Bourgeois, 1982
Breast-like protuberances which seem
to be on the verge of becoming phallic
—it is a body of power.

49. Images of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Progeny
• Mayan representations of pregnant women
– Kidder Figure
– Small, infantile figures linked bearers of human offspring
with mother nature and progenitors of plant life.
• Alice Neel’s PregnantWoman shows physical effects of
pregnancy
• Peruvian Moche culture offers straightforward
depiction of childbirth

50. Clay figurine from Las Charcas culture
• Hand-modeled clay female figurines
highly characteristic of Las Charcas
culture…generally of reddish
brown.These female figurines are
often pregnant and are thought to
have been offerings to promote
fertility in the fields. Usually the
arms and legs of the figures are
mere stumps but some attempt at
a realistic body shape has been
made.The head has received the
most attention to detail…often
have earplug flares.

51. Alice Neel.The Pregnant Woman 1971
• Neel painted her daughter-in-
law, Nancy, nude and in the
last week of pregnancy.
Considering the perpetual
presence of the condition,
there are surprisingly few
images of pregnant women.
Neel's work is remarkable for
including at least eight
pregnant nudes. "I thought the
whole picture of woman
without pregnancy was . . .
trivial," Neel said. "It's treating
woman as sex object. But you
know, sex results in
something." The painting
depicts Nancy at ease despite
the obvious physical strain of
this late pregnancy that
resulted in twins. Directly
behind Nancy's head hangs
Neel's drawing of Richard, the
husband, father, and son.

52. Mother and Nursing Child.
Ceramic effigy vessel,
Mississippian Period.
Cahokia, Illinois,
USA, 1200–1400.

53. ROGIERVAN DERWEYDEN.
Virgin and Child in a Niche.
Oil on panel, 71/4" x 43/4".
Flanders, Northern Europe, c. 1432 –
1433. Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna.

54. Fertility Figure, found at Catal Huyuk, c.6000 BCE

55. Discussion Topics
• How are various attitudes toward sexuality reflect in
the art you see?
• What attitudes toward sexuality, gender, and
marriage do you see display in the media (TV, movies,
advertising, etc.)? Do you agree with these attitudes?
• Why does “the gaze” objectify women in art?
• Can you identify some of the symbols of marriage
displayed in the works of art from other time
periods or other cultures?

56. • Fertility
• Rituals
• Couples
• Love Making, Sexuality, Gender
• Feminine Body and the Gaze
• Abstract Sexual Imagery
• Pregnancy, Childbirth, Progeny