Objects of IVAM. Institut Valencià d’Art Modern
La tarara
Gender roles
Gender and history
La Tarara shows a group of men and women in a circle singing a Valencian folk song at Easter. This was one of the few moments of leisure that both men and women could share outside of the separated social spheres of turn-of-the-century Valencia. The piece also represents women as the primary conveyors of oral tradition. While official history, always told from a male perspective, has been transmitted in writing generation after generation, everything related to daily life was relegated to the back shelf. This created a gap in written history, and the stories have reached our days largely through oral tradition, which is often related to gender tradition with women as the primary conveyors. This was due to the fact that women historically had limited possibilities to receive a formal education, including the skill of writing.
Composition Aubette
Gender roles
Gender and space
From a feminist perspective, the trajectory of Sophie Taeuber-Arp interests us for several reasons. She is a paradigm of modernity in the plastic arts, and particularly of the role that women played in this modernity, which up until recent decades was narrated almost exclusively by men. Taeuber-Arp’s work is a perfect example of the avant-garde desire to integrate art into life, subverting many of the deeply rooted clichés associated with the canonical representation of Art History through her incursion into two highly masculinized spheres like architecture and geometric abstraction.
Femme au miroir II (Mujer ante el espejo)
Gender and the body
Gender stereotypes: Genius / muse
Gender stereotypes: Subject / object
The cast iron and solder outlines of Femme au miroir II (Woman in the Mirror) show the nude body of a woman in a moment of intimacy, as she combs her hair in the mirror. As was the case with brothels, entrance to the washroom was forbidden for women during the modern era. In these places, the female nude was the center of attention, but it was male sexuality that was in reality being represented through the woman’s body. These representations should be framed within the context of a patriarchal modern age, in which spaces and spheres were defined by gender. It was therefore difficult for women to be considered modern artists if they were prevented from entering the spaces and accessing the archetypes defined by modernity.
Maternité
Gender roles
Gender and history
Maternity / Paternity
La Maternité represented by Julio González in this sketch for his famous piece, Montserrat (1936-67), represents the prototype of the Catalonian peasant woman, a page girl who radiates expressiveness and a monumental character. While the dominant prototype of femininity in western societies has historically been associated with features like tenderness and sensitivity, in times of war it was presumed that women could take on the attitudes and behaviors associated with masculinity. From a gender perspective, La Montserrat addresses themes of relevance in current feminist theory, such as maternity.
Poster by Valentina Kulagina
Gender roles
Gender and social class
Gender and history
This poster by Valentina Kulagina shows the fundamental role that women played in the Soviet avant-garde and in the fusion of art with everyday life that was a feature of this movement. Rabotnitsi-udarnitsi, krepite udarniye brigady, ovladevayte tejnikoi,uvelichivayte kadry proletarskij shows a series of female figures extracted from photographs. Some are doing scientific lab work, while others, identified by the red headscarf typical of Bolshevik women that has been painted on their heads, are factory workers. The work of each was essential and relevant for the new society that was to be built.
Fun house
Gender and the body
Gender and sexuality
Gender stereotypes: Subject / object
The Fun House is a key work of Pop Art due to the inclusion of a series of images from the silver screen, science fiction and advertising that later became pop art icons. Of these images, Marilyn represented one of the feminine ideals of the age: the pin-up girl. Pop Art, drawing on visual culture, captured this prototype of an exuberant, highly sexualized woman who embodied the ideal of beauty. While the majority of artists within the Pop Art movement have been men, in recent decades the work of many women has come to the forefront from very different places in the world, using the language of Pop Art to spread a feminist message. Some of these artists, such as Martha Rosler, Ana Peters, Isabel Oliver and Ángela García Codoñer, are represented in the IVAM’s permanent collection.
Model for tunnels
Gender systems
Gender and the body
Gender and sexuality
The evolution of Bruce Nauman’s work is interesting as regards both the broad range of media he has used and the different conclusions that can be drawn from his multiple processes. Nauman’s work addresses racial, sexual and gender conflict, but he has also produced the serial and repetitive work characteristic of minimalism, using his own body as a medium. His use of neon is found in works that often contain explicitly erotic connotations, transferring the impersonal nature of minimalism to the private or personal sphere. Model for Tunnels forms part of the process of sculpture renovation (a largely male discipline), in which women such as Susana Solano and Ángeles Marco have participated. Both Solano and Marco are represented in the IVAM’s permanent collection.
Mujeres libres
Gender roles
Gender identity
Gender and space
Mujeres libres (2017) was created for the exhibit entitled “Carmela García. Images of Power – Cartography of the Invisible” (2017). One of the key points of the project is the construction of genealogies, i.e. connecting women of the past with women of the present. This tool opens the door to creating an alternate future, a future that includes female references that allow us to create a robust identity, making us aware that women must also be a part of public discourse. The second key to interpreting Carmela García’s work is sorority, or sisterhood. In contrast to the patriarchal stereotype that women are highly competitive among themselves, the artist highlights the need to work as an association, based on dialog and a level playing field. Finally, this piece shows the occupation of the public sphere by women, historically relegated to the private sphere.
Untitled, Film Still n. 15
Gender roles
Gender identity
Gender stereotypes: Subject / object
This piece belongs to the series Untitled Film Stills, created between 1977 and 1980. The series includes eighty-four black and white photographs in which Cindy Sherman poses as fictional characters of classic Hollywood and European film, drawing on many of the traditional female stereotypes. Sherman is both the subject and the object of her own creation, subverting the passive role that artistic tradition has typically attributed to women. The piece reveals the context of second-wave feminism, referred to by the philosopher Judith Butler as “gender performativity”. The creation both of the self and of gender identity is a cultural construct, and is therefore unstable.
Carrying
Gender and the body
Gender and sexuality
Gender and space
Pepe Espaliú created various pieces entitled Carrying, sculptures which allude simultaneously to coffins and to palkis, or human powered sedans (wheel-less carriages used to transport the nobility). The Carrying pieces refer to death and to the isolation or marginalization of AIDS patients; but also to the idea of transport, care and accompaniment during this very difficult life experience, protection which Espaliú entreated of society. Espaliú played with the ambiguity of the term carrying, a term referring to transport that was often confused by persons of Hispanic origin living in New York with caring, referring to care and affection. This piece by Espaliú is dramatically charged, and is a metaphor for the experience of AIDS patients in those years in which television and the press bombarded the world with news of the pandemic.