‘‘In Her Image’’, various artists
(Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
THE story of women in art is intriguing, and multilayered. For centuries ignored other than as a muse for male artists, women were almost always depicted from the male outsider’s viewpoint. ‘‘The Muse’’ was idealised yet otherworldly, paradoxically semidivine yet regarded as a dangerous lesser half of humanity.
Thankfully, women have gradually gained a rightful place within the art world, one in which the essence of the feminine is able to take on a renewed and reassessed position — no less spiritual, but more grounded in reality. It is this reassessment which ‘‘In Her Image’’ addresses, seeking a more understood, but still divine femininity, as viewed from within rather than through the mist of male stereotyping.
The exhibition displays a series of modern works by women, all focusing on the feminine spirit. The works range from Robyn Kahukiwa’s iconlike Te Hato the uncanny sensuality of
Marte Szirmay’s Series B. These works are juxtaposed with Renaissance images of the Madonna and Child and Salome’s dance.
The counterpointing of the early paintings with the wealth and breadth of the modern works poignantly punctures the myths of women as seen by men, yet simultaneously shows both the mesmerism of early artists with the power of female sexuality and their reverence for the power of the divine feminine.