Self Portraits/Female Potrayals

Ciu Xiuwen

Though Ciu Xiuwen's Angel series uses light colors and serene architecture and landscapes, her portraits hold a deeper meaning. I feel the women or adolescent girl she features in her artwork is a symbol for all girls, teenage females, and women. Her portraits do not symbolize individuality which I believe is the common theme of portraiture, however, the repetition of the female figure gives a figure for each women viewer to relate to. It is the viewers portrait that Ciu Xiuwen captures. She showcases this one girl which becomes a vessel for other women when viewing the artwork to relate too.

Her artwork subtly portrays the struggles and emotions that women go through as they age and indirectly the trials that all girls and women face, the issue of motherhood and maternity. Her artwork portrays crossroads, exhaustion, frustration, as well as many other

 emotions that a girl or women could relate too. She places her subject, this young women, in a public setting creating an odd effect of private emotions in a public space. Overall everything in Ciu Xiuwen's artwork invites you to think about women in the 21st century and the struggles they face. 

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman's work is sexual yet strong. Her portraiture showcases the vulnerability of a women wile also portraying her as strong and having power over herself and her sensuality. I feel this is because her portraits are so simple. Using a simple composition and focusing in on her subject matter lets her capture a moment in time and highlight the essence of her subject matter making the ultimate intimate portrait. 

Cindy Sherman turns the portrait of a women into magic. Because she focuses on a singular women in most of her photography and film stills, you are forced to look at this women, and only this women. What emotion is she portraying? Is the feeling being portrayed sorrow, frustration, sadness, uncomfortableness, confidence, worry, longing? Cindy Sherman's portraits focus on emotion and her lens becomes a window into her subjects soul.  

Frida Khalo

Frida Khalo's work is cringingly honest. She tears her heart open and portrays herself extremely realistically and highlights her vulnerability as a women. Her portraits showcase her feminine struggles such as her miscarriage that have become a part of her. 

Khalo uses her portraits to showcase the problems in the world around her that effect her life as well as the death of family members and betrayal by friends and her husband. She lets these become her identity because her experiences shape her as a person and highlight what is important to her. Overall Frida Khalo's self portraits are a map to her soul that give us great insight to her thoughts, fears, passions, and hardships.