Ett feminint perspektiv: Kvinnliga konstnärers gestaltande av nakna kvinnokroppar

Abstract

In this thesis semiotic analyses are carried out on twelve artworks depicting female nudes by different female artists. The purpose is to examine how the bodies are portrayed and how they can be understood, based on gaze theories and Lynda Nead’s theories on the genre “the female nude”. Finally the female body is discussed as a discourse and social construction based on the results from the semiotic analysis. The artworks are understood as re-constructive, some of them problematize the frame of limits and restrictions which the patriarchy has placed the female body within. The artworks, which have been divided into two categories – one for contemporary art and one with art made between the years 1880 and 1938, show differences in the portraying of the body, but signs of re-constructing processes could be found in the artworks regardless of time for production. This thesis contributes to raising the female artist ́s work with the female nude. This is considered important since the genre traditionally has predicted a male producer which also has led to an objectification of the female body – hard for female spectators to respond. This thesis show how the female artists’ represented challenge canon when a woman stands in focus both as artist, figure and viewer.