Olympia

How's everybodies' day been?

So, a little bit of a touchy subject last time (cults). I'm going to move on over from that into something a little bit lighter: art. A little background for my experience in art: some. I like to draw, and oil painting is okay. Art museums used to be really boring for me. They took about 20 minutes for me to speed walk through. I'd nag my (insert relative) about how bored I was to be there, and huff angrily at them for not immediately picking up and leaving at that instant.

Give me a break, I was ten.

Then, I realised that art was actually interesting. It was people willing displaying their inner emotions to the world, in some cases. In others, they were telling history as they knew or saw it. Artists tell stories, give out portraits of people, and promote ideals. Art has actual meaning for me now.

(except for that Pollock and Abstract Expressionism crap below)

I can now spend hours upon hours in an art museum and not get to see everything that I was hoping to. I dont want to go to NYC because I'll get depressed about not being able to go through every museum in a few day's time. I'm taking an art history class in school, which is not a very popular course. I've gained patience, in short. With this newfound art appreciation, I've been able to find a couple paintings that I like enough to share them with other people. One of those pieces is what I'm going to be talking about today (and its not a Pollock thankfully). Its actually a painting by Edouard Manet called Olympia.

Just take that in for a second.

Alright, now stop and listen up. That painting, in its original context, actually had a meaning other than portraying a nude. The story within the painting is that the women on the bed is a French prostitute or courtesan. Her black servant is presenting her with a boquet of flowers, which is thought to be a gift from one of her clients. She stares almost apathetically at the viewer, which creates the impression that this is nothing new for her (ie prostitution is old hat for her, even at the age of 19 (more on that later)). Its thought that she might be looking at a client who is coming in through the door where the viewer is (also going to hit that later).

The backstory behind the painting is even more interesting. When Manet displayed Olympia in 1865, the museum had to place 2 armed guards in front of the painting in order to keep the mobs of furious people from damaging it. That was because it was seen at the time as an afront to the values that the middle and upper class possessed, for a couple of reasons. First off,

• The Subject - At the time, this was not a PC thing to do. You did not paint nude women who were not in the bible or from history/mythology (they were the same thing at the time :) ). Additionally, you did not draw prostitutes with faces, because...
• Values/ Humanity - Giving people faces is a way of humanizing them. (Think of the robots in i-robot). People from the time period did not want to be faced with an actual human being who was finding employment through prostitution. This also harkens back to what I said about the woman looking directly at the viewer. The middle and upper class people of the time did interact with prostitutes on a fairly regular basis. However, they did not want to go to an art gallery only to have another one staring at them out of a painting.

Standard painting of the time - Liberty leading the people

• Style - The style of this painting does a subtle thing that you might not notice on your first glance. Look back at it for a second. Notice how its divided into two planes, the background and Olympia on the bed? Manet did this by sharply contrasting the coloring of the background with the harsh white lighting of her skin. This serves to amplify her nutidy, going against the no nude women rule.
• Her Hand- Did you notice that her hand seems to be pressed down over her lady parts? Manet based this painting on Venus of Urbino and Sleeping Venus. In both those paintings, the model's hand is lightly cupping her parts (those paintings weren't reacted to violently). Olympia's hand was seen as symbolising her independence from men, and her being her own person. If you remember your history of the time, and when the feminist movement started (after ww2), then you'll know that women being independent of men was seen as a major no-no.

Manet (above)did a brave thing by going against the standards of the time. He ignored the previously established guidelines and basic assumptions for what art should be and blazed his own path. He meant by producing this piece of art to put forward something that showed how he viewed the world around him, even though he knew it would not be widely accepted. This standing up for what your convictions and beliefs tell you is what art is all about to me.

By the way, the model for this painting was 19 years old at the time. She was named Victorine Meurent, and she became an artist herself. Sadly, however, few of her works survive today.

Alright, thats what I got for today. I hope you guys enjoyed learning a little bit about some art. Tell me what you all think about Olympia, art in general, and topics for discussion.

Jacob Schluns