Images have the power of giving pleasure to the viewers. They allow viewers to articulate their desire through looking. When we look at images our unconscious desires are motivated. The way we look at paintings involves not only a highly complex range of how we view imagery including the gaze. The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views are presented.
I have researched Daniel Chandler’s “Notes on The Gaze”. It provides some knowledge and an understanding on the subject matter throughout my searching process. Daniel Chandler is a British visual semiotician who studies about signs and symbols. Chandler has several key forms of gaze that can be recognized in photographic, filmic or televisual ‘texts’, as well as in figurative graphic art. They are based on who is doing the looking. It starts from when the gaze of the viewer is looking at an image of a person or an object (the readers of the ‘text’). This is called as the Spectators’ gaze. This is followed by the Intra-diegetic gaze, when a character gazes upon an object or another character in the ‘text’. This sort of gaze is what mostly is seen in televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view-shot’. The gaze of an audience within the ‘text’ is also counted as part of the Intra-diegetic gaze. An example is typically shown in game shows. This is often includes shots of an audience watching those performing in the ‘text’ within a ‘text’.
Other key forms of gaze are often associated with gestures and postures are known as the Extra-diegetic gaze. This is when the gaze of a person depicted in the ’text’ looking out at the viewer. Some examples are shown in a drama performance; an aside to the audience. In contrast to the Extra-diegetic gaze, the Averted gaze shows a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer). This may involves looking up, looking down or looking away. Apart from all of the above, the Camera’s gaze (the gaze of photographer) and the Editorial gazes are some other key forms of gaze. The Camera’s gaze represents the way the camera itself appears to look at the people, where as the Editorial gaze shows the whole institutional process by which some portion of the photographer's gaze is chosen for use and emphasis.
Some theories describe ‘the gaze’ as a social power relation between women and men. It is shown on how men gaze at women, how women gaze at themselves, and how women gaze at other women. Women are often made to appear as objects of desire based on their status as objects of vision (the pose). The female gaze is so regular in advertising that it is taken-for granted. Females are shown offering up their femininity for the pleasure of an absent male spectator (the male gaze). The term ‘the male gaze’ is what Chandler believe has become something of a feminist cliché for referring to the voyeuristic way in which men look at women. However, nowadays, men are also subject to codes of appearance."While many contemporary advertisements continue to sell products through traditional gender codes by portraying women in seductive poses for a possessive male gaze, other advertisements play off these traditions by reversing them and showing both the pleasure of looking at men as objects and the power of women in action."
The idea of ‘The gaze’ describes how the viewer gazes upon the people are presented and represented. In some cultures, looking people in the eye is assumed to indicate honesty and straightforwardness. In others it is seen as challenging and rude. Most people in Arab cultures share a great deal of eye contact and may regard too little as disrespectful. In English culture, a certain amount of eye contact is required, but too much makes many people uncomfortable. Most English people make eye contact at the beginning and then let their gaze drift to the side periodically to avoid 'staring the other person out'. In South Asian and many other cultures direct eye contact is generally regarded as aggressive and rude. Some cultures and religious groups believe eye contact between men and women is seen as flirtatious or threatening. Men of these communities who do not make eye contact with women are not usually rude or evasive, but respectful.
The idea of ‘The gaze’ describes how the viewer gazes upon the people are presented and represented. In some cultures, looking people in the eye is assumed to indicate honesty and straightforwardness. In others it is seen as challenging and rude. Most people in Arab cultures share a great deal of eye contact and may regard too little as disrespectful. In English culture, a certain amount of eye contact is required, but too much makes many people uncomfortable. Most English people make eye contact at the beginning and then let their gaze drift to the side periodically to avoid 'staring the other person out'. In South Asian and many other cultures direct eye contact is generally regarded as aggressive and rude. Some cultures and religious groups believe eye contact between men and women is seen as flirtatious or threatening. Men of these communities who do not make eye contact with women are not usually rude or evasive, but respectful.
Spectator’s gaze |
Extra-diegetic gaze |
Intra-diegetic gaze |
Averted Gaze |
Camera Gaze |
FEMALE GAZE
Women figures are often used for advertising purposes,
in a believe they are an effective promotional figure to sell off products.
MALE GAZE: Changing Concepts of Gaze
Today, men are also subject to codes of appearance.
THE GAZE IN PAINTING: How the gaze of the sitter effects the reading of a painting
Le déjeuner sur l’herbe Artist : Édouard Manet Year : 1862 - 1863 Type : Oil on Canvas Dimensions : 208 cm x 265.5 cm Location : Musée d’Orsay, Paris |
In relation to the representation of female nudity, Édouard Manet shocked the French public with his master piece painting that broke all the rules and caused one of the biggest art scandals in1863. Le dejeuner sur I’herbe (The lunch on the Grass), is a large oil on canvas painting. Its juxtaposition of a female nude with fully dressed men sparked controversy when the work was first exhibited at the Salon des Refuses.
What I see in Manet’s painting is just a simply ‘naughty’ disjointed scene. What’s naughty is that, the viewer is faced with an ‘intriguing’ scene. Two clothed men sit engage in conversation with a completely naked woman. There’s a picnic basket beside them that nobody seems to be interested in. Another woman doing something not definite in the background water. There’s no eye contact between these people. However the central naked project figure gazes out towards the viewer in a bold and interested way.
The most intriguing component of this painting is the expression on the central naked figure; her face and the gaze that she directs at the viewer. The consciousness of seeing coexists with that of being seen. Between the sexes, staring is gender-specific to men, for the aggressive role is reserved for them. Women who do it are not only acting improperly, but contrary to their gender. To a greater extent than even Manet had expected, the public’s opinion was emphatically negative. The public, upon viewing Manet’s painting would experience a range of emotions; arousal, resentment, guilt and embarrassment.
Manet’s master piece painting is originally called ‘Le Bain’ (The Bathing), which at least explained the woman in the water. Howeverwithin years Manet retitled it Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Lunch on the Grass). People like something which tells stories; something that they can understand. In fact, you think that the painting is going to deliver a story thatmakes sense to you, and it doesn’t. It’s a bewildering painting. A painting with nobody understood that provoke ridicule and outrage.
All three figures in Manet’s painting are in fact well known to Manet. The central man is posed for by his brother in law, Ferdinand Leenhoff who is a sculpture. It believes that both of Manet’s younger brothers, Eugene and Gustave posed for the reclining character on the right. Manet’s wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favorite model, Victorine Meurent both posed for the nude woman. The naked figure has Meurent’s face, but Leenhoff’s plumper body.
Manet’s ability to reference, adapt and paraphrase earlier works in his paintings is a source of his modernity in thought. Most of Manet’s paintings can be compared in composition and subject to another older painting. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe has been influenced by the old masters. The outlook of the main figures in this painting is originated from Marcantonio Raimondi’s painting, The Judgement of Paris. Furthermore a famous Renaissance painting by Giorgione called The Tempest also shows a full dressed man and a naked nude female in a rural setting. The paintings by the old masters’ are the evidence of the central inspirations of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l'herbe.
I find that Manet’s master piece is a staggering painting. It is extraordinary in terms of its scale and ambition and its challenge effectively to the whole history of the nudes before it. It’s new, fresh and visibly defined. What it attempts to do is essentially change all the rules of art. It’s not a realist painting in the social and political sense. However it is a statement in favor of the artist’s individual freedom. Yet the painting has become an icon and an inspiration for generations of artists. Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe has given me some ideas, and inspired me, to produce a series of paintings showing the figures in picture looking out of the canvas, and gazes directly towards the viewer.
What I see in Manet’s painting is just a simply ‘naughty’ disjointed scene. What’s naughty is that, the viewer is faced with an ‘intriguing’ scene. Two clothed men sit engage in conversation with a completely naked woman. There’s a picnic basket beside them that nobody seems to be interested in. Another woman doing something not definite in the background water. There’s no eye contact between these people. However the central naked project figure gazes out towards the viewer in a bold and interested way.
The most intriguing component of this painting is the expression on the central naked figure; her face and the gaze that she directs at the viewer. The consciousness of seeing coexists with that of being seen. Between the sexes, staring is gender-specific to men, for the aggressive role is reserved for them. Women who do it are not only acting improperly, but contrary to their gender. To a greater extent than even Manet had expected, the public’s opinion was emphatically negative. The public, upon viewing Manet’s painting would experience a range of emotions; arousal, resentment, guilt and embarrassment.
Manet’s master piece painting is originally called ‘Le Bain’ (The Bathing), which at least explained the woman in the water. Howeverwithin years Manet retitled it Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Lunch on the Grass). People like something which tells stories; something that they can understand. In fact, you think that the painting is going to deliver a story thatmakes sense to you, and it doesn’t. It’s a bewildering painting. A painting with nobody understood that provoke ridicule and outrage.
All three figures in Manet’s painting are in fact well known to Manet. The central man is posed for by his brother in law, Ferdinand Leenhoff who is a sculpture. It believes that both of Manet’s younger brothers, Eugene and Gustave posed for the reclining character on the right. Manet’s wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favorite model, Victorine Meurent both posed for the nude woman. The naked figure has Meurent’s face, but Leenhoff’s plumper body.
Manet’s ability to reference, adapt and paraphrase earlier works in his paintings is a source of his modernity in thought. Most of Manet’s paintings can be compared in composition and subject to another older painting. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe has been influenced by the old masters. The outlook of the main figures in this painting is originated from Marcantonio Raimondi’s painting, The Judgement of Paris. Furthermore a famous Renaissance painting by Giorgione called The Tempest also shows a full dressed man and a naked nude female in a rural setting. The paintings by the old masters’ are the evidence of the central inspirations of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l'herbe.
I find that Manet’s master piece is a staggering painting. It is extraordinary in terms of its scale and ambition and its challenge effectively to the whole history of the nudes before it. It’s new, fresh and visibly defined. What it attempts to do is essentially change all the rules of art. It’s not a realist painting in the social and political sense. However it is a statement in favor of the artist’s individual freedom. Yet the painting has become an icon and an inspiration for generations of artists. Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe has given me some ideas, and inspired me, to produce a series of paintings showing the figures in picture looking out of the canvas, and gazes directly towards the viewer.
Based on my research and study, the act of seeing, direct gaze, and eye contact is often characterized as a shocking act of possession, as well as important sign of confidence and giving a large influence on social behavior. It varies generally between cultures, with social religious and social differences often varying greatly in meaning. However, sight is connected through memory to the experience of touch. Therefore, the gaze may symbolically imply physical appropriation of dominance. As an artist, I believe visual communication is the most important form of communication in art.
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