TAKING BACK POWER: SELF DEFENSE AND VULNERABILITY IN GENTILESCHI AND BOURGEOIS

Abstract

Throughout history, the idea of power over the body has been a central theme in the art world. Represented in its various contexts - political, social, physical, sexual - power can be seen as a complex idea between physical domination and an abstract force. Often associated in art with violence and male brutality, power is especially enacted over the female body, inevitably through some sort of game of domination and submission. Gaining back power over their own body is one of the most important aspects of the work of female artists from the 1970s, which continues until this day under the spotlight of movements such as “Me Too” and other issues related to body politics. But let us not forget that these claims are not only made accountable in
contemporary times, also Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi dedicated much of her work to the triumph of
the female heroine over a male antagonist. In a more subjective way, power is asserted by Louise Bourgeois
through the vulnerability with which she works about her powerful female identity. A woman that transforms
herself into a blade in order to face trauma.