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• 1 media/2020.6.1.jpg media/2020.6.1.jpg media/Unknown.jpeg 2022-11-30T22:07:01+00:00 Abby Luhrs' Final Project 42 plain 2022-12-17T07:54:20+00:00

  This is the main piece in my gallery curations, which is found within the Escalette Collection is Micol Hebrons Cabaray: Observatory Venus at Lovers Hour. This work of art by Micol Hebron is commenting on Man Rays, The Lovers and the Birth of Venus by Alexandre Caberbell. This piece is a deeply methodical and cerebral experience where the artist is commenting on so many different pieces that make up the art thirty cannon. It both goes back and references pieces that make up the art historical cannon of today and looks back at the circumstances that art had been created in the
  past.
  I like including the venus iconography because through history the venue has taken many different roles, and even greater I would like to look at the idea of the muse. However, more to the point I wanted to look at the idea of a muse and how the pieces by Micol open up a conversation of what it means to be a muse and potentially the power the term has removed from the person in view over the years. With Micols pieces she is taking hold of the idea of a muse, becoming both the artist and the inspiration. 
  
  
  Olympia, by Manet was one of the most impactful pieces of the impressionist era, as well as an example of aventurine guard work that was damned at its time and now it considered one of the greatest works to some out of the era. Manet Olympia takes on the idea of being the muse and the identity of it. It removes the many layers of mysticism that often accompanies the muse, including fetishization, dehumanization and objectification. The women in the picture it confronting the viewer, calling attention to the voyeuristic qualities of people viewing art at the time. this was taken into account in Micols piece and the two sit well together because of there awareness and candors at a time when art was not often looking into the seriousness of the human condition. 

  I thought it would also be important to have a piece by another photographer, which is where Cindy Sherman comes in. Sherman has made a courier of taking portraits of herself; however, she becomes almost unrecognizable in her practice. Sherman uses makeup and prosthetics to change her appearance and essentially photograph different characters, having a never-ending catalog of characters simply within herself. In many of her pieces, she would create characters that reflected archetypes common in society, creating people or versions of people who feel recognizable. Much like Micol, she uses herself as the subject of a lot of her work, creating once again the combination of artist and muse in the same person. Since Sherman is in complete control of the creative visions both in front and behind the lens, her art creates totally unique experiences, much like with Micols pieces where the final products in the single-minded creation of the artists. This form of art using one form in one's art has been around since the begging of painting. Artemisia Gentileschi, a woman painter in the Baroque period, would have to look at herself in a mirror as a model because women were not allowed to use models as they were often sex workers. 
  

  Much like with the piece by Herbon, Hannah Hoch uses the idea of collage and subversion in much of her work. This was a common theme in Dadaist works. However, when thinking of the work in context with Micols pieces, we can see the inspiration that has been utilized in works to subvert expectations of works in the 70s feminist movements and even the cubist and expressionist movements. I feel that Hoch's pieces are a clear influence on the work Micol does by the nature of their splicing and creating a new image using the ideas of the past and breathing new life and meaning into pieces that have already been created. I find this piece especially interesting as it shows youth and beauty as well as maturity and aging in the same image, seeming to comfort the idea that women's value decreases with age. This also seems to be looking at the idea of the muse in a more dissecting way. Much like with a lot of art in the cubist and surrealist movement, women would often be reduced to a set of body parts that the male artist deemed most beautiful; Hoch's art seems to be riffing on this but by using the least sexual pieces of a body to create a new collage.
  
  
   

  “Cabaray: Observatory Venus at the Lover's Hour.” Wikinson College Dean's Suite, https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/deans-suite---roosevelt-hall-/cabaray-observatory-venus-at-the-lovers-hour. 

   

  “Cindy Sherman: Derek Blasberg: Interview.” Gagosian Quarterly, 16 Apr. 2020, https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2020/04/16/cindy-sherman-derek-blasberg-in-conversation/. 

   

  “Olympia - Edouard Manet - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/olympia/ywFEI4rxgCSO1Q?hl=en&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A9.261715553440961%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A1.634944829968606%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375000000000007%7D%7D. 

   

  Rudick, Nicole. “Hannah Höch at Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofía.” The Online Edition of Artforum International Magazine, 1 Jan. 2004, https://www.artforum.com/print/previews/200401/hannah-hoech-5956.