My Kid Could Paint That

This Girl is on Fire
Woman as Goddess
Curated by Emma Krasnopoler

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863

Olympia, inspired by Titian’s Venus of Urbino, confronts viewers in a blatantly sexual repose. Her blank stare and exposed flesh is unsettling, rather than arousing. There is something lifeless and distant about her, not even close to the virginal, doe-eyed look that women were supposed to have. This woman, unmistakably a prostitute, defies the standard image of women: innocent, feminine, weak. She is, rather, fierce, independent, hardened – a modern woman in a vintage pose.

I say “modern” for two main reasons. The first is her physical appearance. Unlike her “Venus” counterpart, Olympia is just like any girl. She is thinner than most women of the time, which was thought to be unattractive and unhealthy. Her skin does not glow like that of a goddess, and her hair is modestly pulled back. She has had to work to survive, and the hardships of her life are not hidden from viewers. While many people found the painting repulsive and shocking at its first reception, the most shocking thing about Olympia is how human she is. She is not venerated, nor idealized; Olympia is ordinary. However, despite her lack of godliness, she still commands attention in a way that is unheard of for women. She is naked, but not vulnerable. Exposed, but in control. Olympia is a woman that everyone knows. Whether you like her or not, she commands respect. She is real, she is resolute, and she is not going anywhere.

Bad Boys
The Men Who Saw Art and Chose To Change It
Curatedby Gabrielle Fenaroli

Manet, Le Dejeuner Sur l'Herbe, 1863\

 
Waltzing through the Musée d'Orsay as an ignorant child unaware of the art that surrounded me, my eyes fell upon a rather peculiar painting Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe. As I began to study the painting, I felt my mother’s cold, sweaty palms cover my eyes as she quickly ushered me away from the painting. Little girls don’t need to be staring at naughty lunches, she said in a hushed tone. It was then I realized what was transpiring in the scene, it was indeed as my mother pointed out:  a naked lady eating lunch. It was just as shocking to me as it was to the French public in 1863 when it was presented in the Salon des Refuses. Édouard Manet painted the large (7 by 8 ½ feet) canvas and blatantly ignored social norms at the time. However unnerving it was to the viewers, Manet’s work sets the tone for modern art as it defies previous subjects and paves the way for new artistic freedoms.

What strikes me about the painting is the casualness of the whole scene; at no point does it strike me as a “naughty lunch.” There are no neon signs or glaring declarations that there are indeed two naked women in this scene. The two men sit around leisurely discussing politics or the gorgeous scenery that surrounds them. The woman in the background appears too large and slightly out of proportion when compared to her three companions. The combination of the crudely painted background and her large body give her the appearance that she is merely floating off in the distance. Even if the background and some of the foreground are inconsistent with lighting and shading, one cannot discount the painting for it made way for a new art form to emerge.

Although before we going giving Manet all the created he would like to believe he deserves, he does draw upon past paintings to aid in breaking the art barrier. The similarities between Le déjeuner sur l'herbe and Titian’s Pastoral Concert, painted in 1509, are undeniable. However where Manet veers off is where he gets his claim to fame. The woman at Manet's picnic stares directly at the viewer, which at the time was taboo. Manet makes his leading lady’s stare down his go to move as seen in his other risqué 1863 painting Olympia. So while I understand my mother’s intentions on attempting to shield me from the human form at the young age of four, I have grown to truly love this painting. Manet’s ability to create a scene so nonchalant but also gripping amazes me, and he does indeed make a way for future artists to continue to make mothers shield their child's eyes.

Gentlemen's Club
Courtesans and Seductresses Depicted in Art
Curated by Gabbi Fenaroli

Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863

“So sweet and delicious do I become,
when I am in bed with a man
who, I sense, loves and enjoys me,
that the pleasure I bring excels all delight,
so the knot of love, however tight
it seemed before, is tied tighter still.”
- Veronica Franco

Gazing into the eyes of Manet’s Olympia, it becomes difficult to look away. The private moment Manet has created for the viewer does not go unnoticed. What shocked the masses at the 1865 Paris Salon was not her bare breasts and exposed body. They took offense to her provocative gaze, and the blatant fact that she was a courtesan. Some items pointing to her profession include the orchid in her hair, the black ribbon that contrasts her pale flesh, and the playful slipper falling of her foot. What sets Olympia apart from other paintings featuring a bare model, is that she is attainable. She exists in modern culture.

Paintings record history and depict events occurring in society, and prostitution was not a piece of history Parisians wanted recorded. In contrast with the painting that inspired Olympia, Sleeping Venus by Giorgione, Olympia appears more boyish than Venus.

Olympia undermines the female bargaining power of sex, since her job trades pleasure for money. Olympia threatens women’s power, especially in 19th-century Paris, because of what she offers to men - no strings attached, no guilt involved.