Since the beginning of Art, the female figure has been one of the main subject matters for its beauty, sexuality, and emotive powers, starting with the Venus of Villandorffand continuing with em>Venus de Milo and every other Venus incantation from the virgin mary to Picasso’s obsession with his model. Perhaps one could make the case that this is true because most of the audience for art and almost all the artists were male. But why then, when in the surrealist period women were accepted as artists, did almost all of them focus on their own bodies for subject matter? Because they were neurotic or because we have been trained to accept a more subversive and subconscious message from the female nude, just as sure as we have been trained to buy shit from the TV. Give her to us and she makes us yearn for freedom, yearn for submission or just want to get off more than any other object in the artistic world.
However America, having no ancient art history save that of the American Indians, in the name of Abstract, minimalist, and conceptual art, has decided to dump Venus and her powers of evocation, which is odd because just on the male sex level, her audience could not have dwindled to zero. No, like a herd of bulls, they simply moved on to photography, which added a sense of reality to the combo of beauty and sex. Then as photography was considered art, she moved into fashion. If you wanted to see beauty worshiped in the most sensual classy poses of your generation would you go to an art gallery or would you just pick up Vogue and Bazaar and go home?
In Newton’s book, White Woman, having discarded her designer dress, Venus is no longer trying to sell you something. Newton playfully discusses sex without trying to get you off as in porn or fettish, and unlike movies, his moment of passion holds still forever. He uses props, rich settings, and the Amazon-like women, fashionable and rich, who are our modern Venus. Is this better than a Titian? No, it is different and like it or not, it is our modern Venus – well dressed, blatantly sexy and above all unobtainable. However, when asked if he was an artist, Mr. Newton replied, “No, I’m a great technician”. I agree. Photography is not art or if it is, then why isn’t cinematography. They are just as artistic but they should have their own place for they are documentors, not creators. But of course this doesn’t matter because now-a-days everything is art, everything except beauty.
Art is too snobby to idolize a goddess while sex hides like a snake in the folds of her clothing. I think women were lucky to have that emotive power in the arts. But perhaps the combo was too powerful and in consequence, we have lost our exclusive position as the muse of sex and beauty.
Artillery Magazine Vol 6 no. 5 June/July 2012