Illustrated History

Linda Soberman
Artist Statement, March, 2011

Inspiration for my current art work is based on Linda Nochlin’s 1972 book “Woman as Sex Object”, which looks at the role of women in the history of art and contemporary culture. Similar concerns about representation of women as subject/object, notions of female beauty, gender, and identity are recurring themes in my work. Years ago, I was invited to be part of the Cranbrook Museum of Art “Altered Book Invitational” where I used Linda Nochlin’s book as my canvas. I physically removed all the nudes and replaced them with plain paper and my own photographs so as to divert the male gaze. A few years ago, I rediscovered the file with the saved cutout images of all the nudes. Sometimes things literally fall in our laps and give us a new direction to our art.
In my most recent series, “The History of the Naked Woman in the History of Art” (“An Illustrated History”), I appropriate female images from historical painters, most notably Titian and Raphael, extract the female figures from their original context and place then into imaginary landscapes, created with my own and found photographs, iconic mid-20th century Mexican and American printed materials, diagrams, mechanical, and scientific drawings. I experiment with multiple processes of photo transfers, lithography, drawing and Photoshop to produce images that are simultaneously contemporary and reminiscent of vintage prints. Traditionally men have been the image shapers, but in the last 30 or more years, this pattern has changed significantly. By transforming the way women are presented, I can pose questions about identity in an imaginative way.