Natalie Frisinger- Project 3 Statement

Natalie Frisinger

Lia Halloran

Advanced Painting

Project 3- Historical Reference

For my historical reference project, I attempted to incorporate a historical influence in a continuation of my previous analysis of a distinctly feminine spirituality and expression of transcendentalism. Building off of the depiction of a seeming beginning of physical ‘ascension’, this piece attempts to create an image that depicts a figure that has ‘ascended’.

Predominantly influenced by Paul Gauguin and the larger Symbolist movement of the late 19^th century, my piece addresses the subjugation of women in the expression of desire. The symbolist movement was to the development of transcendental expression in art, what impressionism was to the larger development of modernist trends. Thus making it a difficult challenge to penetrate the trends (regarding the expression of one’s spirituality and ‘inner-self) as a woman. At the movement’s core, symbolism was a movement that rejected prior trends in naturalism in favor of the reflection of emotion and idea; thus strongly opposing the quasi-scientific manner of expression developed through impressionism. The core of the Symbolist era was one, which expressed the themes of love, fear, aguish and sexual desires, often depicting women in vulnerable, oppressed positions. Paul Gauguin’s work is a body of work, which aptly depicts this notion. In addition, his expression of said themes was done in a way that made the women he was painting, objects of expression as opposed to subjects.

In my attempt to express a strictly feminine perception on spiritual expression, I have created pseudo-religious deity-like figures, placed in positions of power that suggest a reclamation of femininity, lost in the symbolist movement. In revitalizing this, I also attempted to negate the objectification of women, giving my figures a lively, energetic form that suggests that they are more than a simple still image. Once again utilizing negative space, my piece makes use of oppositional forces in a poignant fashion, in drawing the viewer while also dwarfing him/her. The extremity of the figure’s pose is one which supports a certain aggression in addressing these issues.