Mirror Mirror ; self-portraits by women artists is a book by Liz Rideal, featuring two essays by Whitney Chadwick and Frances Borzello. Mirror Mirror was published in 2001 by the National Portrait Gallery.
Liz Rideal is an Art Education Officer and Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as being a professor of Fine Art at Slade School of Fine art in London. She herself is an artist with many solo exhibitions under her belt.
Whitney Chadwick, who’s essay I will be focusing on, is a professor at the Art of San Francisco State University. She is an author, who’s written books such as ‘Women Art and Society”, and has lectured and published in areas of feminism, contemporary art and surrealism.
The book was published to accompany the exhibition Mirror Mirror: Self-portraits by Women Artists at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001. This exhibition was the first of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery, celebrating solely women’s self portraits. The book contains two essays at the beginning, one from Whitney Chadwick and one by Frances Borzello. The book discusses 40 self-portraits in different mediums, such as painting, photography and sculpture, which are presented in a chronological order. Each double page spread focuses on one piece of art with some information on the piece in text, much like you’d see at an exhibition.
The essay is titled How Do I Look? and is positioned at the front of the book. It talks about the context behind artworks, with emphasis on Nina Hamnett, a painter, illustrator and writer. She isn’t limited to just talking about female artworks but talks about a variety of genders, including the androgynous Claude Cahun. While images do make an appearance in this essay, the writing doesn’t rely on them and instead uses them to give the reader something to reference when the author is making a point. The writing is more about the context and less about the images.
The essay is split into sections by the use of quotes around the topic, for example the part on staging oneself has the heading “The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and Nature do with actors will”. - it relates to the theme without giving it away clearly. Personally, I found this was just one aspect that made the essay rather unpleasant to read. It uses a very academic tone to the extent of pretentiousness, which makes it feel rather dull and not so engaging, however the message and contextual snippets within the text are interesting and useful to my research.
The message of this essay overall is to educate on self-portraiture from a variety of viewpoints with emphasis on where women fit in. By using both male and female examples we can understand a broader history, and by inserting certain themes it allows us to understand these self-portraits to more depth. Another reason for this essay is to insert theory on these themes, again allowing us to understand these images to a further extent, which the reader can apply to any following self-portraits they may come across.
I will be taking quotes from Chadwick's essay that have helped me gain a better understanding of women's self portraiture and the concepts surrounding it;
- "I am interested in what these self portraits might tell us about the relationship between the fixed image and the female subjectivity, or the ways that femininity is internalised" (page 9)
Chadwick talks about how he is interested in the way the female artist is portrayed in her own images and how they may talk of a connection between the photograph and the female experience or how the female experience is internalised this for various reasons.
I think it's clear based on personal experiences forming different personalities this will be different for each artist.
- "Every woman who paints a self-portrait, or sculpts a likeness, or places herself in front of a lens of a camera whose shutter the controls, challenges in some way the complex relationship that exists between masculine agency and feminine passivity" (page 9)
In the eyes of Chadwick, every female artist who makes art from their own appearance fights against the link between men being free and independent and capable, and the woman being passive and submissive to man, and effectively, society (run by men). This is because the woman is becoming free by choosing her own representation. Which goes on to the next quote;
- "I like to think that in taking up a brush or pen, chisel or camera, women assert a claim to the representation of women (as opposed to woman) that Western culture long ago ceded to male genius and patriarchal perspectives, and that turning to the image in the mirror they take another step towards the elaboration of a sexualised subjective female identity." (page 9)This shows Whitney's bias on the topic. This is likely to be because she is from an artistic background, and is a woman herself, exposing herself to the unbalance of female and male acceptance in self-portraiture. Today in class I asked my classmates to name a random self-portrait artist and 7 named female artists and only 1 named a male. So why is there such an imbalance? Is because the general public don't see things the way we do and people who come from an art background?
Whatever the reason, it's nice to consider that by simply taking my own picture I am fighting a patriarchal system bound to society hundreds of years ago.
By using the term 'sexualised subjective female identity' i believe Chadwick meant that women were taking control of how they say themselves in a sexual manner or not.
- In the mid to late 19th century there were "increased opportunities for middle-class women included education reforms that led to the admission of women to the Royal Academy of Arts, the Slade School of Fine Art (Founded 1971) and the Government Schools of Design" (page 10)
This shows progression in history and helps me understand the contextual importance a little more. They received technical training in painting and art to a substantial degree. During this period many more paintings, particularly self-portraits were being made due to it become more acceptable for women to create such pieces.
- " The first formulation of the new ideal of the artist as a learned man, and the work of art as a unique expression of the gifted individual, appeared in Leon Battista Alberdi's treatise On Painting, first published in 1435" (page 10)
This quote in particular shows just how ingrained into society the idea of the artist being a man is. It's had almost 600 years to strengthen, and it becomes clearer as to why this ideology is so hard to break today. I think that we are making progression, however it is slow because it's almost been carved into society, and we have to work step by step to fill the etchings in to create a new slate. We can do all we wish to try and speed up the process but in reality it takes generations for people to become more open minded about such things.
- "The categories of woman and artist...remained incompatible" (page 10)
This further strengthens Frances Borzello's point from Seeing Ourselves; Women's Self-Portraits, where she says about how society demanded two sets of expectations from artists and women, and the two were in conflict.
- (talking about women artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) "For the most part, they avoid making strong psychological demands on the viewer in favour of offering likeable images for our contemplation" (page 12)
This shows a parallel with the work women were producing because it was more acceptable, and the way women were looked at. They were there to be looked at and to look pretty rather than offer a comment of any intellect. This link has slowly been deteriorating in my eyes, however it's important to understand why the work that was made was the way it was.
- "Self-portraits of women artists draw us into the problematics of deciphering the identity that lies behind the social expectation that women present themselves in public adorned, masked and made up" (page 12)
This is an interesting concept; Chadwick is suggesting that because women have been using masquerade to fit in to society's standards of them and to fit the many different expectations of them, the mask is now permanent with nothing authentic underneath. Because of this, she suggests, it's hard for an audience to understand the true identity of a woman artist within her self-portrait.
This is based off opinion rather than fact, however I do wonder how true this is. If it is true, I'm sure we'd hardly notice it. While I don't know myself completely, I know pretty large parts of who I am; stubborn, shy and lazy for example. These are things I've been since I was a toddler, and so I would argue not all women are the outcome of masks over masks.
I also cannot rule this out for all women though, for an example of somebody who believes in this is Claude Cahun. While Androgynous, she explores both her masculine and feminine sides. She is famous for the quote “Under this mask, another mask. I will never finish removing all these faces.”. Perhaps this is from presenting as female for a lot of her life and being accustomed to the masks.
- "As viewers we are both seduced into assuming a kind of 'intimacy' with the sitter, and distanced by the fixity of a representation so at odds with the fluidity of our normal social relationships" (page 12)
I interpret this is Chadwick saying that a viewer to the female self-portrait assumes there is a connection between the two of them, a close relationship and understanding, yet at the same time they feel a distance between the sitter due to her self-representation being so different to how those around us present themselves. Those in the self-portraits may seem more calm and free and true to themselves, and viewers aren't used to that in their real life relationships.
- "For the woman artist, the difficulty and paradox of being both active, creative subject - a maker of meaning - and a passive object -a site of meaning - can only be resolved through performing the self" (page 14)
This suggests again that there is a conflict between being a woman and being an artist. An artist is supposed to create meaning, yet the woman is 'supposed' to be passive. This is more relevant when looking at historical artists, however because of this opposition the answer was to perform the self and create art from it, simultaneously being a site of meaning and creating the meaning, and therefore being more acceptable in society.
- "By temporarily dislodging identities normally fixed by social rules, masking and masquerade have provided women artists with new ways of bringing femininity into representation. Many women artists in the twentieth century have employed cross dressing and androgyny as strategies through which to challenge and/or unfix the categories of gender and sexuality and introduce ambiguity and fluidity" (page 17)
This suggests that the mask isn't always a bad thing in terms of representation of women. Chadwick offers the view that it in fact elevates women to a position where they control their representation and femininity even more by challenging the representation that society tells women they should fall under.
- "Women are defined by history as well as biology, culture as well as nature. The self portrait has offered women artists an opportunity to explore a complex and unstable visual territory in which their subjectivity and lived experience as women intersects with the visual language which has historically constructed 'woman' as object or other. Within this space, women have struggled to locate positions from which to speak and have renegotiated the relationship between subject and object" (page 21)
Chadwick starts by saying that women's role in history encompasses who they are, and that it's not just down to genitalia or gender. It's about what they've been through as women, who have always been seen in some sense or another, as less than men. Men ruled the world then and they continue to do so today, and so women are seen as 'other', they're different. The self portrait allows the woman to explore this on their own terms, how they've lived with this societal unbalance and how their experiences translate into art. Because of the man's leadership, we see that this has been hard to translate in a way that's not pushing the boundaries too much, and so Chadwick suggests that the relationship between subject and object have been redefined by women. What this renegotiated relationship is, however she doesn't state. Perhaps it's just that subject is no longer equal to object, for they don't see themselves as 'other' in the same way that men do. The two are no longer closely linked for they portray themselves as their own subject, the model, and not an object or the other to just be observed, but offer some sort of food for thought for the audience.
The overall position of Chadwick's views are clear; she believes that the women's self portrait is to be celebrated, and is a symbol of fighting the patriarchy that's been deep in our society for hundreds of years.She offers a lot of interesting concepts, which I find important to understand and consider as I create my own self-portraits, as context allows me to feel this connection with past women artists who are fighting for a place in the art industry. To know what they were doing and why allows me to understand why I am doing this. It's self exploration, yes, but I do think it's also as a way to relieve my frustrations on a patriarchal world that I've been so angry at for years, and I didn't even realise my work could be fighting against that subconsciously.
Women's self-portraiture has such an interesting background and I think it's only fair for me to understand it to a decent degree if I am to make my own work following their footsteps.
Rideal, L. (2001) Mirror mirror; Self-portraits by women artists. London: National Portrait Gallery.
Liz Rideal is an Art Education Officer and Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as being a professor of Fine Art at Slade School of Fine art in London. She herself is an artist with many solo exhibitions under her belt.
Whitney Chadwick, who’s essay I will be focusing on, is a professor at the Art of San Francisco State University. She is an author, who’s written books such as ‘Women Art and Society”, and has lectured and published in areas of feminism, contemporary art and surrealism.
The book was published to accompany the exhibition Mirror Mirror: Self-portraits by Women Artists at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001. This exhibition was the first of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery, celebrating solely women’s self portraits. The book contains two essays at the beginning, one from Whitney Chadwick and one by Frances Borzello. The book discusses 40 self-portraits in different mediums, such as painting, photography and sculpture, which are presented in a chronological order. Each double page spread focuses on one piece of art with some information on the piece in text, much like you’d see at an exhibition.
The essay is titled How Do I Look? and is positioned at the front of the book. It talks about the context behind artworks, with emphasis on Nina Hamnett, a painter, illustrator and writer. She isn’t limited to just talking about female artworks but talks about a variety of genders, including the androgynous Claude Cahun. While images do make an appearance in this essay, the writing doesn’t rely on them and instead uses them to give the reader something to reference when the author is making a point. The writing is more about the context and less about the images.
The essay is split into sections by the use of quotes around the topic, for example the part on staging oneself has the heading “The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and Nature do with actors will”. - it relates to the theme without giving it away clearly. Personally, I found this was just one aspect that made the essay rather unpleasant to read. It uses a very academic tone to the extent of pretentiousness, which makes it feel rather dull and not so engaging, however the message and contextual snippets within the text are interesting and useful to my research.
The message of this essay overall is to educate on self-portraiture from a variety of viewpoints with emphasis on where women fit in. By using both male and female examples we can understand a broader history, and by inserting certain themes it allows us to understand these self-portraits to more depth. Another reason for this essay is to insert theory on these themes, again allowing us to understand these images to a further extent, which the reader can apply to any following self-portraits they may come across.
I will be taking quotes from Chadwick's essay that have helped me gain a better understanding of women's self portraiture and the concepts surrounding it;
- "I am interested in what these self portraits might tell us about the relationship between the fixed image and the female subjectivity, or the ways that femininity is internalised" (page 9)
Chadwick talks about how he is interested in the way the female artist is portrayed in her own images and how they may talk of a connection between the photograph and the female experience or how the female experience is internalised this for various reasons.
I think it's clear based on personal experiences forming different personalities this will be different for each artist.
- "Every woman who paints a self-portrait, or sculpts a likeness, or places herself in front of a lens of a camera whose shutter the controls, challenges in some way the complex relationship that exists between masculine agency and feminine passivity" (page 9)
In the eyes of Chadwick, every female artist who makes art from their own appearance fights against the link between men being free and independent and capable, and the woman being passive and submissive to man, and effectively, society (run by men). This is because the woman is becoming free by choosing her own representation. Which goes on to the next quote;
- "I like to think that in taking up a brush or pen, chisel or camera, women assert a claim to the representation of women (as opposed to woman) that Western culture long ago ceded to male genius and patriarchal perspectives, and that turning to the image in the mirror they take another step towards the elaboration of a sexualised subjective female identity." (page 9)This shows Whitney's bias on the topic. This is likely to be because she is from an artistic background, and is a woman herself, exposing herself to the unbalance of female and male acceptance in self-portraiture. Today in class I asked my classmates to name a random self-portrait artist and 7 named female artists and only 1 named a male. So why is there such an imbalance? Is because the general public don't see things the way we do and people who come from an art background?
Whatever the reason, it's nice to consider that by simply taking my own picture I am fighting a patriarchal system bound to society hundreds of years ago.
By using the term 'sexualised subjective female identity' i believe Chadwick meant that women were taking control of how they say themselves in a sexual manner or not.
- In the mid to late 19th century there were "increased opportunities for middle-class women included education reforms that led to the admission of women to the Royal Academy of Arts, the Slade School of Fine Art (Founded 1971) and the Government Schools of Design" (page 10)
This shows progression in history and helps me understand the contextual importance a little more. They received technical training in painting and art to a substantial degree. During this period many more paintings, particularly self-portraits were being made due to it become more acceptable for women to create such pieces.
- " The first formulation of the new ideal of the artist as a learned man, and the work of art as a unique expression of the gifted individual, appeared in Leon Battista Alberdi's treatise On Painting, first published in 1435" (page 10)
This quote in particular shows just how ingrained into society the idea of the artist being a man is. It's had almost 600 years to strengthen, and it becomes clearer as to why this ideology is so hard to break today. I think that we are making progression, however it is slow because it's almost been carved into society, and we have to work step by step to fill the etchings in to create a new slate. We can do all we wish to try and speed up the process but in reality it takes generations for people to become more open minded about such things.
- "The categories of woman and artist...remained incompatible" (page 10)
This further strengthens Frances Borzello's point from Seeing Ourselves; Women's Self-Portraits, where she says about how society demanded two sets of expectations from artists and women, and the two were in conflict.
- (talking about women artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) "For the most part, they avoid making strong psychological demands on the viewer in favour of offering likeable images for our contemplation" (page 12)
This shows a parallel with the work women were producing because it was more acceptable, and the way women were looked at. They were there to be looked at and to look pretty rather than offer a comment of any intellect. This link has slowly been deteriorating in my eyes, however it's important to understand why the work that was made was the way it was.
- "Self-portraits of women artists draw us into the problematics of deciphering the identity that lies behind the social expectation that women present themselves in public adorned, masked and made up" (page 12)
This is an interesting concept; Chadwick is suggesting that because women have been using masquerade to fit in to society's standards of them and to fit the many different expectations of them, the mask is now permanent with nothing authentic underneath. Because of this, she suggests, it's hard for an audience to understand the true identity of a woman artist within her self-portrait.
This is based off opinion rather than fact, however I do wonder how true this is. If it is true, I'm sure we'd hardly notice it. While I don't know myself completely, I know pretty large parts of who I am; stubborn, shy and lazy for example. These are things I've been since I was a toddler, and so I would argue not all women are the outcome of masks over masks.
I also cannot rule this out for all women though, for an example of somebody who believes in this is Claude Cahun. While Androgynous, she explores both her masculine and feminine sides. She is famous for the quote “Under this mask, another mask. I will never finish removing all these faces.”. Perhaps this is from presenting as female for a lot of her life and being accustomed to the masks.
- "As viewers we are both seduced into assuming a kind of 'intimacy' with the sitter, and distanced by the fixity of a representation so at odds with the fluidity of our normal social relationships" (page 12)
I interpret this is Chadwick saying that a viewer to the female self-portrait assumes there is a connection between the two of them, a close relationship and understanding, yet at the same time they feel a distance between the sitter due to her self-representation being so different to how those around us present themselves. Those in the self-portraits may seem more calm and free and true to themselves, and viewers aren't used to that in their real life relationships.
- "For the woman artist, the difficulty and paradox of being both active, creative subject - a maker of meaning - and a passive object -a site of meaning - can only be resolved through performing the self" (page 14)
This suggests again that there is a conflict between being a woman and being an artist. An artist is supposed to create meaning, yet the woman is 'supposed' to be passive. This is more relevant when looking at historical artists, however because of this opposition the answer was to perform the self and create art from it, simultaneously being a site of meaning and creating the meaning, and therefore being more acceptable in society.
- "By temporarily dislodging identities normally fixed by social rules, masking and masquerade have provided women artists with new ways of bringing femininity into representation. Many women artists in the twentieth century have employed cross dressing and androgyny as strategies through which to challenge and/or unfix the categories of gender and sexuality and introduce ambiguity and fluidity" (page 17)
This suggests that the mask isn't always a bad thing in terms of representation of women. Chadwick offers the view that it in fact elevates women to a position where they control their representation and femininity even more by challenging the representation that society tells women they should fall under.
- "Women are defined by history as well as biology, culture as well as nature. The self portrait has offered women artists an opportunity to explore a complex and unstable visual territory in which their subjectivity and lived experience as women intersects with the visual language which has historically constructed 'woman' as object or other. Within this space, women have struggled to locate positions from which to speak and have renegotiated the relationship between subject and object" (page 21)
Chadwick starts by saying that women's role in history encompasses who they are, and that it's not just down to genitalia or gender. It's about what they've been through as women, who have always been seen in some sense or another, as less than men. Men ruled the world then and they continue to do so today, and so women are seen as 'other', they're different. The self portrait allows the woman to explore this on their own terms, how they've lived with this societal unbalance and how their experiences translate into art. Because of the man's leadership, we see that this has been hard to translate in a way that's not pushing the boundaries too much, and so Chadwick suggests that the relationship between subject and object have been redefined by women. What this renegotiated relationship is, however she doesn't state. Perhaps it's just that subject is no longer equal to object, for they don't see themselves as 'other' in the same way that men do. The two are no longer closely linked for they portray themselves as their own subject, the model, and not an object or the other to just be observed, but offer some sort of food for thought for the audience.
The overall position of Chadwick's views are clear; she believes that the women's self portrait is to be celebrated, and is a symbol of fighting the patriarchy that's been deep in our society for hundreds of years.She offers a lot of interesting concepts, which I find important to understand and consider as I create my own self-portraits, as context allows me to feel this connection with past women artists who are fighting for a place in the art industry. To know what they were doing and why allows me to understand why I am doing this. It's self exploration, yes, but I do think it's also as a way to relieve my frustrations on a patriarchal world that I've been so angry at for years, and I didn't even realise my work could be fighting against that subconsciously.
Women's self-portraiture has such an interesting background and I think it's only fair for me to understand it to a decent degree if I am to make my own work following their footsteps.
Rideal, L. (2001) Mirror mirror; Self-portraits by women artists. London: National Portrait Gallery.
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