Personal Values Table

I had some helpful friends give me some feedback on how they saw my values.  I should try to get a few more male points of view, as I only have one.  Now I need to work up the Values sketchbook.  I think I shall use some of the phrases to caption what I draw.

Contributor	Value	Positive Behaviour	Negative Behaviour	Object
Female	What you see is what you get	You never pretend	Sometimes you may appear abrupt/ brusque if one does not know you.	Your soup.  -       You can mostly see all the ingredients, but not always. -       It is always hearty and simple, yet always very rich in both look and flavor -       It takes energy and effort to make and yet you always make some -       It is a ‘straight to the point’ meal, both as a type of food and in the utilitarian way you carry it and consume it.
Male	You are genuine	You would not say one thing and do another.	You might not pull your punches in a delicate situation.	Tomato soup – you … home-made of course! Oak tree – value.
Female	Principled	Help others	Feeling responsible for others	Open hand
Female	Honesty, integrity, discipline, hard working, principled	Generosity, forthright	Dogmatic	A gloriously proletariat thermos flask!
Female	Courage – to do what you think is right Outspoken to stand up for yourself and others. Less brave people are desperate for people to speak out on their behalf as they don’t have the courage to do so and are not able to take the risk to jeopardise their position.	Achievements for yourself and others.	Outspoken – can be seen as threatening.  Vocal – the veneer that means we verbalise to cover all that goes on inside (defense mechanism).	Red hair.  Traits traditionally associated with red hair – you will laugh at some of them.

Picasso Portraits analysis.

I did some content analysis of the Picasso Portraits exhibition. It was a huge exhibition so I restricted the range by deciding to only look at images that included women (this was over half the images).  I was predisposed to believe Picasso was disrespectful towards women, because of art history lectures I had listened to. I set rules to decide whether the images were respectful or disrespectful to women, by whether the women were sexualised.  My definition of sexualised was whether the woman was clothed or not, whether other people in the image were clothed when she was not, whether the erogenous areas were displayed.

I was surprised how many different media and styles Picasso used - charcoal, oil, magazine collage, bronze, sheet metal, cubism, classical portraiture - throughout his career.

No	Image/description	Respectful	Disrespectful
1.	Angel Fernandez and a woman. 1905 Male clothed, female nude.  Fingering a prostitute and an erection.		X
2.	Sebastian Junyer; Vidal.  1906 Man with sad prostitute wearing low top and flower in mouth.		X
3.	Head of a Woman. Bronze. 1906 Aloof serenity of classical goddess	X
4.	Fernande Olivier (lover). 1906 Head and shoulders.  No gaze	X
5.	Fernande Olivier. 1905/6.  Wearing mantilla.  Wistful feminine mystery.  Symbolism. No gaze	X
6.	Fernande Olivier. 1909-10 Cubist head. Head and shoulders.  No gaze.	X
7.	Head of a woman.  Bronze 1909.  No gaze.  Model was depressed.	X
8.	Picasso in a Top Hat. 1901. Male self clothed, 2 women half naked, 1 clothed.  Inspired by Lautrec		X
9.	Olga Khaklova in an Armchair.  1918. Full length.  Clothed	X
10.	Olga Picasso.  1923  Full length.  Clothed.  1st prize Carnegie Intl Exhibition, Pittsburgh.  Hint at estrangement – disnified, subtle and classified.	X
11.	Olga and Paolo (son) 1921. Humour for those he loved.  Mother and son clothed.  Caricatured and chunky.	X
12.	Olga in a Fur Collar.  1923 Head & shoulders.  Clothed	X
13.	Woman in a Hat. 1935.  Head and shoulders. End of marriage.  Dark eyes, small pursed mouth, pale skin – mocks the chic hat.  Sad and bewildered expression.  Ashen and mask-like. Barbed but also pitiful.		X?

14.	Jaume Sabartes and Sylvia Lopez. 1958. Collage drawn on magazine image. Female in swimwear ; man clothed, praying and worshipping her		X
15.	Jaume Sabartes and Esther Williams. 1957.  Collage/magazine.  Man clothed, grasping breasts and pouting.  Woman in swimwear given hair under arms and weeds growing in pubic region		X
16.	Jaume Sabartes as a baby, kissing a model.  1962.  Collage on newspaper.  “He’s at it again”.		X
17.	Jaume Sabartes and his neighbor. 1957.  Male nude, female nude.  Prostitute in boots and smoking.		X
18.	Woman in a Yellow Armchair.  Marie Therese.  Huge white breasts, full bodied, sinister and oppressive.		X ?
19.	Woman with Joined Hands. 1938.  Marie Therese.  Half length. Curvaceous lines – her nature. Bosoms and nipples.		X
20.	Nusch Eluard.  1938.  Ethereal, lightweight, thin and bony.  Acrobat.	X
21.	Dora Maar. 1938. Intelligent and tempermental.  Caricature – head larger – recognises her intellect?	X
22.	Marie Therese.  1931. Bronze.  Head.  Curvaceous.	X
23.	Lee Miller.  1937. Half length	X
24.	Nusch Eluard.  1937  Head and shoulders.	X
25	Maya in a Sailor Suit.  1938. To please his daughter – in a childlike style	X
26.	Jacqueline in a black scarf. 1954. Half length.  Spanish dress.  Sensual pleasure in flushed face. Dimple on chin.  Calm and relaxed	X
27.	Woman by a window. 1956.  Jacqueline – muse and companion.  Angular/sinister	X
28.	Head of a Woman.  1941.  Dora Maar. Huge.	X
29.	Woman in a Hat.  1941. Half length. Dora Maar.   Psychological stress and distortion.	X
30.	Madame Paul Eluard. 1941. Vulnerable waif.  Naked.  Half length	X ?
31.	Woman in an Armchair. 1949. Francois Gilot.  Plant-like form.	X
32.	Woman in an Armchair.  1947. Francois Gilot.  Pregnant, with red triangle.	X ?
33.	Paloma and doll.  1952.  Tattooed face.  Menacing.  Relationship failing.		X
34.	Claude drawing.  1954. Son, plus his sister and mother.  Fascination of children drawing – he was not allowed to draw ‘as a child’.  Happy.	X
35.	Las Meninas.  1957  The Infanta as Paloma	X
36.	The Madam – Abortionist, 3 prostitutes and Degas.  1971. 3 nude women and clothed madam, and clothed Degas as voyeur.		X
37.	Raphael and 4 Marina. 1968.  Male virility.  Man clothed and woman nude.  Fecundity to mistress.  Peeping pope.		X
38.	Rembrandt drawing in the style of Rembrandt.  1934.  Man clothed, woman nude.		X
39.	Sylvette.  1954.  Sheet metal.  Head & shoulders.	X
40.	Jacqueline with a Yellow Ribbon.  1962. Head & shoulders.	X
41.	Dora Maar. 1937 Head & shoulders.	X
42.	Marie Therese.  1935.  Head & shoulders.  Upward looking	X
43.	Nusch. 1937.  Head & shoulders on a napkin.	X
44.	Jacqueline.  1955.  Full length.	X
		31	13

I was very surprised at how many of the images of women were what I would call Respectful towards women.  There were some truly vulgar images (e.g. No 1.).  A lot of his portraits were in traditional poses - e.g. head and shoulders or posed sitting in an armchair.  There were also images disrespectful towards women which were quick cartoons on magazine pages which were probably created as informal sketches, rather than planned portraiture.  I wondered whether the curation of the exhibition had deliberately screened out a lot of the disrespectful images - I remember one (in Tate Modern, I think) of a woman with a large bright green vagina, painted when he was impotent in later life, according to the museum guide.  In conclusion, the Picasso Portraits exhibition indicated he was more respectful towards women than I had expected. 

So where does this analysis take me?  When women are naked in imagery and other people portrayed are clothed there is a difference in status.  I read this as disrespecting women.  There is also relevance in the gaze when people are portrayed clothed or naked.  I need to read more around this.  

I am creating Values and Status sketchbooks about my own work and they include naked silhouettes of me.  I do not think they are sexualised or disrespectful in any way - they merely portray what a naked middle-aged woman looks like.  But one of our tutors was definitely uncomfortable about it.  I am still considering what makes a nude image become sexualised (and therefore unacceptable in what I am trying to portray).  At present, I think it is about the gaze, focus on/realism in erogenous zones, and recognition of the individual.  So my naked self silhouettes are acceptable.  I may change my mind!