Visit to Schmidt Art Center

For my museum visit, I browsed the Schmidt Art Center, located on the campus of South Western Illinois College.  Since the works displayed are primarily those of college-aged artists, I expected a more even gender balance in the works presented, but I was surprised by what I actually found.  While there was a fairly even break between male and female artists, the sex division in nudes was highly tilted towards the females.  While there were five paintings that featured nude human beings (the style varied, some were more impressionistic while others were more realistic), only one featured naked males, and all of them featured naked females.  However, the one painting that featured both sexes nude (appropriately titled "Infidelity," as it depicted an affair) was the only painting to show full-body nudes, and the style was impressionistic, so the "sexual appeal" of the painting probably was not as high than it was with the others.  The other four nudes, which were styled more realistically, featured only fragments of the women, mainly the torso.  None of them had faces, and their body language was ambiguous.  For example, one of the women-fragments in a bathtub looked slouched over, so it was difficult to discern whether she was relaxed, despairing, or passed out.  Perhaps that was the goal of the artist, however.
One painting featured one young woman kissing another young woman, who looked nearly identical to her, on the cheek. I was unsure whether they were sisters or otherwise related or whether they were a couple.  The latter was the conclusion I jumped to before examining it closer, which made me realize how ingrained the dreamworld's image of women as hypersexual and always in need of romantic contact is in our society.  Kissing family members was considered normal and acceptable many years ago, but now most people seem to jump to the conclusion that kisses are strictly romantic as opposed to a general display of affection as hugs are.
In the picture, I am standing next to a dress literally missing the woman.  I do not think this was the artist's intention, but it was interesting to ponder nonetheless. The entire thing is made of old paper blueprints, so it truly was amazing, definitely my favorite piece.