Life, they say, is replete with paradoxes. At one level we like to believe that there should be gender equality, but when that happens, we lament that finer sensibilities are the martyr. In the visual arts, where gender differences are generally blurred, are there areas where these mars and venus situations combust like meteorites in a starry sky. The point is, at what point do they go their separate ways, chasing their own patch of the sky or are they destined to be intertwined like the moon and the earth or the sun and its planets?
Arts are an arena where sensibilities are paramount and so is success. Do women get free rolls of the dice by just the factor of their gender? Far from it, like everywhere else, they have to work twice as hard to get there. If they work, they do so in spite of everything and not because of something. A man can go off to his studio at any time and start painting. Can an Indian woman? Assuming that she has studio space in her home, she has to first ensure that her family is looked after and then think about her work. And if she has to travel to reach a place outside the home, those logistics are so many that I shudder. First she has to be able to afford a studio. Then it must be in a locality that she can access at any time – day or night. Then she must be mobile enough to go there whenever – safety issues and other logistics.
As women we don’t have the luxury of waiting for a mood to come. Mood has to come when we can paint. If she emerges a good painter it is great, and if she is able to sustain it, it is a miracle. One hand wields the saucepan and the other wields a paint brush. Thankfully, there is no gender discrimination at the artistic or social level among the artist fraternity, but if work is rejected by the viewers at some point, artists do not think it on the basis of gender. And if artists put gender tags on themselves, discrimination begins at that level itself.
Clearly, some of the scales are tilted in the favour of men as men are more opportunistic, they have fewer responsibilities, they are more outgoing, able to promote themselves by socialising with buyers and doing public relations with people who matter and are consequently perceived as bigger and better. Women, on the other hand are expressing themselves differently. They are aware of their femininity but not necessarily in a self conscious manner. They tend to be more sensitive to situations and reacting as a group biologically, emotionally and societally.
It is said that the male “gaze” is different. Their obsession is with the form and to an extent even objectification. Men don’t necessarily echo feminine concerns, while women tend to see things differently. They’d see the tenderness, fertility, sensuality… Nurturing comes naturally, women are more multi-dimensional, they go into details, in fact some of it is semi-autobiographical as well. This is especially true when women paint nudes. While the men paint nudes as rather to-die-for perfection bordering on glorification, women see and acknowledge the warts, the rolls of extra flesh and other imperfections. We have come a long way from a situation where women were branded mad just if they opted to depict female nudes.
The passion women bring to their work, thanks to the resistance they have to undergo, is what sets them apart. How else do you get your reference points to trigger your creativity? The contentment that we experience in our work, gives us the energy to carry on with the mundane. For unlike men, we can’t ignore the life around us. Sensibility is a very subtle thing. Difficult to describe, yet easy to perceive, for the execution makes it apparent. For instance, emotionality can be used as an advantage or a disadvantage.
Given the fact that art has come a long way from being only for its own sake to a point where commercial success plays a rather extensive role in it, do works of women artists fare better or are they perceived to be better than their male counterparts? It is dependent on the level of excellence that have arrived at. And the tough part is to get there. What were the compulsions of the journey, how much were they able to apply themselves to getting that excellence. These are the factors which determine an artist’s salability. However, in terms of sheer numbers, there are fewer women artists. And even fewer women who paint abstracts. Women are more sensitive and are able to show what they go through more poignantly than men, who don’t experience the things we do — like post partum blues, like middle age loneliness, like the pain of menstruation or child birth. It is tough being woman, to top it if you want to be an artist as well, all I can say is good luck! Touché!
The writer s an art writer, curator and artist and can be contactedon alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com
