art gallery

Paul Cadmus (Study for a David and Goliath) Acrylic on Arcylic 1971
Berger in Chapter 3 states that women were portrayed nude in European art, almost has a possession. They were painted for a male audience, and that they knew that that’s why they were being painted. It is clearly seen in a lot of European paintings that females are facing forward, in the nude blankly starring out,as if starring at the patron the picture was painted for. He also talks about, women being the study and the studier.They study themselves as how they want to be presented and seen, and then they study themselves as how men would perceive them.
This painting however, defines all ethics and norms of European art. This picture has a male in the nude front facing. Berger states that if it was a male being portrayed nude for a female audience the result would be terrible. It was not normal for a male to be painted in the nude, and front facing. If a male was painted in the nude in a picture it was always to the side of a women or in the background. The interesting thing about this painter Paul Cadmus, was that he was a known homosexual. So almost all of his paintings portray men in the nude. This was highly against the norms of European art.  In most European art, the female always had a dull look upon her face, as if she was there only to be surveyed, however in this picture Cadmus paints his male figure who I later learned was actually his lover, and appears in several of his pictures, smiling. Not only is the male figure in the nude smiling, but so is the figure directly below him.
I believe that if Berger was around to see this painting he would have a mouth full to say, at the least. This painting goes beyond all norms of the time period. Instead of it being a female portrayed in the nude for the male viewing it is a male being portrayed maybe not necessarily for the female viewing, but still there none the less. This picture looks like it almost shows the two males in a lovers embrace, the male on the bottom is resting his head on the other male’s thigh. In common European art, the female was always shown as a possession, or an object of lust and desire. This picture struck a cord in me, because it redefined the norms of standard European art.

Works Cited:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972. Print.