Keywords
Gender
Sculpture
Feminism
Visual Art
History
How to Cite
Abstract
Art is in itself is an activity of participation, and involves not only the artist, and the muse, but the viewer as well. Due to this three-dimensional nature, the production of art does not stop after its initial creation, but goes beyond to the response it attracts. Gender becomes one of the many lenses through which a study of the visual can be undertaken. Any object thus needs to be subjected to the questions of how to read such a source or the context in which it is placed, the identity of the artists, and their sources of patronage. Its current situation further adds another degree of interaction with the source. Therefore, any sculpture or painting cannot be viewed in isolation. Engendering any art requires a set of tools that are at the disposal of the analyser. The paper attempts at locating gender via a study of the celestial females, and further by focusing on the example of the famous Dīdārganj Yakṣi, to also study the issue of the gaze in the process of engendering of the visual.
References
1. awa, Seema. 2013. “Gender and Art: Paradigms and Problematics.” In Gods, Men, and Women: Gender and Sexuality in Early Indian Art, by Seema Bawa, 15–49. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld.
2. —. 2011. “Gender in Early Indian Art: Tradition, Methodology, and Problematics.” In Indian Art History: Changing Perspectives, edited by Parul Pandya Dhar, 111–118. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld and National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology.
3. Bolon, Caroline Radcliffe. 1992. Forms of the Goddess Lajjā Gaurī in Indian Art. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
4. Butler, Judith. 1999. “Preface, 1999.” In Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, by Judith Butler, vii–xxvi. New York: Routledge.
5. Desai, Devangana. 2013. Art and Icon: Essays on Early Indian Art. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
6. Guha-Thakurta, Tapati. 2007. “For the Greater Glory of Indian Art: Travels and Travails of a Yakshi.” In Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial and Postcolonial India, by Tapati Guha-Thakurta, 205–233. New Delhi: Permanent Black. Originally published 2004.
7. Mulvey, Laura. 1999. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, edited by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, 833–844. New York: Oxford University Press.
8. Nead, Lynda. 1992. The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity, and Sexuality. London: Routledge.
9. Panofsky, Erwin. 1955. “Introduction.” In Meaning in the Visual Arts: Papers In and On Art History, by Erwin Panofsky, 1–25. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2020 JASSSR