Malarstwo kobiet. Kobiece malarstwo czy babska sztuka?

Abstract

The author of the article considers the problem whether there exists such a phenomenon as feminine painting. Negative answer to that question entails the necessity to use another more accurate expression: women’s painting. She points out that the features commonly associated with the so-called “feminineness”: softness of drawing, subtlety of colour, faintness of form - are equally characteristic of women’s and men’s paining. She emphasizes that the evaluation of each work of art, its authentic value, and its timeless impact, should not be subject to gender categories. Nevertheless, she considers studying other expressions of women’s creativity, especially literary and biographical, in addition to the analysis of the paintings themselves, particularly helpful in the interpretation of women’s art. As evidence of that, the author cites a long list of women artists whose work confirms the importance and the existential drama of their way, the heroism and the choice which they continuously made by drawing, painting, or sculpting. She also encourages to analyse the lot of women graduates of artistic colleges. In conclusion, Irena Popiołek emphasizes that one should pay attention to those elements in the woman’s psyche which make her life discrete, and by the same token they have to make her painting different. It influences its features, permanence of certain motifs, kind of message, moods and emotions surrounding it.