SLU Art Museum

Fionna and I, and another friend of mine, went to the SLU art museum for class. The exhibition there was called "No Place Like Home: American Scene Painting in the Sinquefield Collection." The exhibition, not surprisingly, contained only works completed by men. Men were also the subject of almost all of the paintings containing human figures. Many paintings were of landscapes, but some of them were of farms and farmers. These farmers were exclusively men, which is not only a reflection but also a perpetuation of the notion that only men are capable of doing farm work. The absence of female artists was also an obvious reflection of the sexism within the art world - not that women artists do not exist, but that they are hardly ever put on display or given recognition.

There was one piece in the collection that struck my attention because of its subject being a woman. The woman looked pretty hard-off and angry/desperate. The description of the piece said that the artist chose to use women to evoke sympathy for the impoverished and unemployed during the Great Depression. I found it revealing that women were used to evoke sympathy instead of men, and telling of social notions that women are weaker and should be pitied more than men. There is a deeper underlying message here that women are less capable of taking care of themselves than men are.

Overall, I wasn't surprised by what I found at the art museum - it was a collection of men's artwork that was exclusive of any women artists, and had a very traditional depiction of gender roles when people were present in the paintings. aaaaand here's a selfie!