Contexts inside of art: Context in art is where artists work in regards to their environment, historical trends and traditions, social movements, cultural values, personal commitments and many more. Artists do not create contexts they work within them
Jenny Saville
One of themes I have decided to research is ‘The Body’. An artist who uses a lot of body imagery within her work is Jenny Saville. She is well known for her fleshy female figure paintings, Saville combines figuration and abstraction within her artwork to create direct images of human form. Jenny Saville goes against the art historical theme portraying women to be bigger in her artwork showing all the curves and dimples however this is very normal within modern society, for example looking back at historical art, artists regularly portrayed women to be small in size.
Jenny Saville has always been interested with the human form and how bodies move. The reason she paints the human body is to portray modern life within the body. Saville’s artwork goes against he historical image of women looking all perfect. She uses the female body in her artwork to portray the fact that its realistic and normal to have marks, cellulite, dimples and so on, the idea that not every women is flawless and has to look like the typical stereotype. Saville’s fascination with bodies extends to what people will endure to change them.
Daisy Collingridge
Another artist who uses the body within their work is Daisy Collingridge who uses a lot of textiles, sculpting different fabrics to form wearable pastel coloured body suits. Her artwork involves using traditional techniques such as quilting, applique, and cutting. Also she uses materials such as jersey, wadding, bean bag beans, calico or any stable fabric to support her artwork. Collingridge is inspired by the human anatomy and most of her artwork is very figurative, the squishy looking sculptures she produces reflect on the human form however with elements of fantasy and humour.
After making these amazing costumes, Collingridge is the one who wears them while they get photographed and says its an exercise to get into them. All of these costumes neither promote or demote one body type, the idea society only has one body type is ridiculous, so collingridges costumes kind of give you that realistic body image in a grotesque but funny kind of way. Her artwork is is more about the ideal way to inhabit a body.
Both these artists use the human body to break the norm that society expects us to be perfect, so both these artists do actually portray the real image of what its like to be human. For example the ideal body people give women is to be on a diet and to be very slim, there are many people in this world that are ashamed of their bodies, however both these artist portray it as a very beautiful thing showing the word that its normal to have lumps and bumps and that its not a negative thing. For example through Jenny Saville’s work she tries to create a new ideal about beauty, beauty is usually the male consideration of the female body, her paintings are beautiful and have their own individuality, but they have been convinced to despise their own body through the social structures. She represents something in between reality and the perception women have when they inspect their own bodies in the mirror and compare it on the scales.
That’s what I really love about both these artists, that they are portraying individuality, and showing the world that its a beautiful thing to have stretch marks and be unique.