Museum Visit Blog

I few weeks ago, I was in Forest park and decided to drop in to the Saint Louis Art Museum on Art Hill. I initially was thinking of this as simply an enjoyable afternoon, but it is hard to look at anything the way you used to before taking a Women’s Studies class. We primarily lingered around the European Art section (we can discuss my Eurocentric inclinations at another point) and I personally was attracted to the intricate nudes painted by artists such as Lovis Corinth and Max Beckmann. While they are stunning pieces of artwork, they remind me of how women are primarily depicted in vulnerable positions, and made to look fragile and ornamental. These nude portraits are no exception. Additionally, in this museum as in most, it is far more likely to see a nude painting of a woman by a man than any other gender variation. This is largely indicative as the theme of women being used as props or sources of inspiration, rather than as the creators themselves.