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VISUAL ART ANALYSIS

Anusha Sharma

HUM 221 The Impact of Art: Visual, Design, & Media

Westcliff University

Professor Bhatta

September 28, 2021

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Art is subjective and there is no specific way to perceive an art. However, there are

various methodological approaches to understand and explain ideas. Here I will be explaining art

through post-colonial, feminist, and queer methodologies.

The piece of art I have chosen is Les Femmes d’Alger Version O by Pablo Picasso. It

shows a female with full face on almost one third of the picture and deconstructed female body

parts here and there in between colorful geometrical patterns.

I can see the chaos on the female body on the way it is represented. It is represented in a

way to show it exists but also not. The full face of the female shows confusion, sadness, and

disappointment. The expression seen is raw and irrational. She has her breasts shown even with

her clothes covering other parts of the body. It could be interpreted as women being vulnerable

and used, to take the representation she wants from the patriarchal society because there is

tendency to underrepresent the contribution of women.

The power in the art could be seen quite front faced. I could not see the agenda of racism

as such but could easily see oppression through the facial expression and body gestures. Adding

to the oppression is the concealed ideas inside the geometrical structures with incomplete body

parts. Like the western colonizers controlled the colonized in the colonial hegemony, the art

illustrates the reference from the frame to shape oneself. The part of art in the background has a

frame which throws exact situational vibe out of the frame which could be the testimonial to

configure one’s belief.

The picture depicts marginalized idea of post structural fragmented interest. Queer is

heavily influenced by feminist criticism (Lane, 2016). The art gives feminine idea to it, as

discussed above which I believe is already a discriminated topic to discuss on. Trying to
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understand the art from queer perspective, I think the psychological analysis of the character, and

building of knowledge in the art adds up to it.

The aspect of feminism and queer are quite similar in this art form giving the idea of

belittled mindset. Post-colonial aspect in the piece of art could be quite understood from the

oppression and power of the art form.

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References

1. Lane, N. (2016). Bringing flesh to theory: Ethnography, black queer theory, and

studying black sexualities. Feminist Studies, 42(3), 632-648,770.

http://dx.doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.42.3.0632

2. Imen Cozzo – A post/Colonial feminist reading of Assia Djebar’s women of Algiers in

their apartment and Malika Mokeddem’s je Dois tout a ton Oubli. (2018, July 13).

boundary 2. https://www.boundary2.org/2018/07/imen-cozzo-a-post-colonial-

feminist-reading-of-assia-djebars-women-of-algiers-in-their-apartment-and-malika-

mokeddems-je-dois-tout-a-ton-oubli/