24. November 2016–
19. March 2017

Battle of the sexes

Franz von Stuck
to
Frida Kahlo

What are you?

What is the relationship of man and woman? What are the differences, and what do they have in common? Which roles and tasks are assigned to the sexes?

With the women’s movement burgeoning in the middle of the 19th century, these questions become more and more pressing. Over the course of the next 100 years, the relationship of the sexes will undergo dramatic changes. Male and female artists address the battle of the sexes in their works.

For there can be no liberation of mankind without social independence and equality of the sexes.
August Bebel, 1883¹

Excessive activity of the brain does not only pervert woman, it makes her sick.
Paul Julius Möbius, 1900²

What woman is capable off, we cannot tell, for throughout history known to us, she is the creature suppressed and crippled by our wrong […].
Robert Blum, 1848³

The unadulterated male is the image of God, an absolute; woman, also the woman in man, is the symbol of nothingness.
Otto Weininger, 1903⁴

The state to the man, the family to the woman!
Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1894⁵

One need only look at a woman’s shape to discover that she is not intended for either too much mental or too much physical work.
Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851⁶

Alice Guy, Les Résultats du féminisme (The Consequences of Feminism), 1906, Gaumont Pathé Archives

Topsy-turvy world

The woman is smoking casually while she is putting her feet up, in the meantime the men are busy sewing and ironing.

Humorously Alice Guy inverts the conventional gender roles in her film “Les Résultats du féminisme (The Consequences of Feminism)”. She criticised the current relationship between man and woman: the film closes with the men – frustrated by domestic work and childcare – reclaiming their social liberties.

In the 19th century the women’s movement had spread quickly, yet marriage and family are still the female focus at the beginning of the 20th century. Women and men are far from equal.

The Relationship of the Sexes in the 19th Century

In the 19th century men and women are not equal in terms of politics, society and the law. Male and female character traits are clearly separate and determine the social hierarchy of the sexes. They are derived from anatomy and physiology, but are also determined by prejudice and stereotypes. Traditionally man is perceived as rational, strong and active, while woman is considered weak, emotional and passive.

Hence man rules the public sphere of state and politics, while woman is primarily defined by her roles as housewife and mother. The enlightenment had brought about the call for equal rights for women, which quickly found supporters. However, these emancipatory ambitions met with considerable resistance, because they threatened the male monopoly of power thus questioning a pillar of society.

Fateful Woman

Cold as stone and indifferent: this is how the woman fixates the viewer. Falling for her would be fatal. Her victims are piling up underneath her.

Which rights could men grant women without risking their own privileges? In the latter half of the 19th century women’s call for better life conditions grew stronger. It is manifest in the image of the unscrupulous femme fatale (French: fateful woman). She drives men – or even mankind– to ruin. The figure is intended as a warning against women. Gustav Adolf Mossa’s man-eating femme fatale illustrates her false seductive powers:

Gustav Adolf Mossa, She, 1905, Oil and gilt on canvas, 80 x 63 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice

She is atop a mount of corpses. The murderess’ legs show bloody imprints of her victims’ hands.

Next to skulls two ravens are sitting on her head. Since medieval times these scavengers are considered birds of death.

Her head is framed by a halo, inscribed: “What I want, I order, my will is reason enough.”

In her lap there is a black cat. The hunter symbolises female sexuality.

Her necklace is embellished with murderous weapons: pistol, dagger, and poison capsule.

Since the 19th century the femme fatale epitomises the fateful woman. As a type she is highly popular with writers, philosophers, and artists who have described her in many versions. Female figures of mythology and Christianity have also been reinterpreted in this context.

Who’s
Guilty?

Religious order is beginning to unravel: in 1859 Charles Darwin’s ground-breaking book “On the Origin of Species is published”.

According to Darwin’s evolution theory man is the result of natural selection. In the strife for life only the fittest survive. Darwin’s research suggests that instead of having been created by God, man has evolved from nature.

This is how in the 19th century the church lost her prerogative over the interpretation of the story of the origin of mankind. Although science proved the Christian story of creation wrong, Adam and Eve survive as a subject in the arts. Artists turn to the biblical story to address the relationship of the sexes.

Seductive Femme Fatale

Franz von Stuck, Adam und Eva, um 1920, Tempera auf Holz, 98 x 93,7 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Franz von Stuck depicts Eve lasciviously as the demonic seductress. A snake coils around her body; together they offer Adam the bright red apple. He in turn does not reach for the fruit, instead he points to Eve’s exposed, naked body – emphasizing her erotic appeal even further.

Joined in Sin

Suzanne Valadon, Adam and Eve (Self-Portrait with André Utter), 1909, Oil on canvas, 162 x 131 cm, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle

Here the artist Suzanne Valadon depicts herself as Eve, confidently dealing with her nudity. Adam is represented by her partner, who was younger than her by twenty years. He supports Eve as she reaches for the apple: the responsibility for the Fall of Man is shared. To present the work at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1920, the artist had to cover Adam’s sex with a branch. Exposing male genitals was considered indecent, while presenting it was not an issue to present female genitals.

The Situation of Women Artists

In the 19th century women are largely excluded from the art world. In 1886 they are offered the opportunity to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; German art academies only follow suit in 1919. Women were to focus on their role as wives and mothers – thus the general opinion. As this did neither inspire creativity nor thought, women were unable to seriously engage in artistic activity.

Various representations of Adam and Eve originate from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They demonstrate the differences in gender roles, also in their relationship with God.

Auguste Rodin, Eve, 1881 (cast 1903–1917), Bronze, 175 x 51 x 63.5 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Julius Paulsen, Adam and Eve, 1887, Oil on canvas, 148.5 x 155 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Pierre Bonnard, The Man and the Woman, 1900, Oil on canvas, 115 x 72.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

František Drtikol, Mother Earth, ca. 1930/31, Gelatin silver print, tinted, 29.8 x 23.7 cm, Private collection

Expecting Eve: while Auguste Rodin is working on his Eve, the model becomes pregnant. Hence he interrupts his work – the sculpture remains unfinished. Initially it was conceived together with a figure of Adam for his great project Gates of Hell. It seems as though Eve wants to hide away in her own body, now that she has understood her wickedness and that she is being driven from paradise.

Do Women
Spell Death?

For thousands of years we know of stories of women who bring disaster on mankind.

The young woman is meeting the viewer’s gaze almost innocently, naively. Her fair skin and the revealing dress emphasize her sensuality. Free from any emotion Salome presents the severed head of St. John the Baptist. There is no sign of her bloody act of revenge from the Bible. Instead Jean Benner was interested in the shocking combination of violence and eroticism in one and the same figure.

Jean Benner, Salome, ca. 1899, Oil on canvas, 118 x 80 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

Salome’s Revenge

The Gospels according to Mark and Matthew tell the story with the dramatic climax of the presentation of St. John the Baptist’s head. Herod Antipas repudiates his wife to marry Herodias. John publically condemns this act, which prompts Herod to arrest him. When Herodias asks him to kill John, Herod ignores her. Perturbed by Herodias’ daughter Salome’s seductive dance of the seven veils, he promises to grant her any wish. Spurred along by her mother, she asks for John’s head, which is eventually presented to her on a plate.

In the 19th century the story of Salome changes fundamentally. It expresses the general fear of woman’s wayward powers. The biblical narrative is increasingly sidelined by the description of Salome as man-eating femme fatale. Finally in Oscar Wilde’s play of 1893, Salome’s action is no longer prompted by her mother’s pleas, but by unrequited love. She becomes solely responsible for John’s death.

In the Face of Death

Lovis Corinth, Salome II, 1900, Oil on canvas, 127 x 147 cm, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig

The hangman is still carrying the bloodied sword and the victim’s body is carried off, while Salome opens the eyes of dead John with pointed fingers. Death does not shock her. Lovis Corinth refers to a scene from Oscar Wilde’s tragedy. The story with all its actors is illustrated on numerous levels.

Gaze on the Bare Body

František Drtikol, Salome, 1924, Pigment print, 29.5 x 23.8 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

František Drtikol reduces his depiction to a naked Salome and John’s head. The actual plot becomes secondary – instead the artist focuses on the staging of the body, on light and shade. His photographs repeatedly deal with the alleged libido of woman, who he represents in an erotic, at times also disturbing manner.

Man is half god and half animal. Woman is solely animal.
František Drtikol⁷

Versions of Dread

The subject of the strong, fatal women was hugely popular with artists, who varied the theme according to the different myths.

Men’s fear of women has inspired stories for thousands of years. Be it Pandora, Medusa or the Sirens, Eve, Judith or Delilah – women are responsible for death, perdition, and pain. This fear is particularly acute in the 19th century:

the traditional identities of man and woman are being questioned and gender roles and the intersexual relationships begin to topple. Artists, too, address the worry about the consequences of female emancipation.

Max Liebermann, Samson and Delilah, 1902, Oil on canvas, 151.2 x 212 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Jeanne Mammen, Death; St. Anthony, ca. 1908–1914, Watercolour, pencil and ink, 28.7 x 27 cm, Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung, Berlin

John Collier, Clytemnestra, 1882, Oil on canvas, 239.5 x 148 cm, Guildhall Art Gallery, London

Gustave Moreau, Oedipus the Wayfarer or Equality in the Face of Death, ca. 1888, Oil on canvas, 125 x 95 cm, Musée de la Cour d’Or – Metz Métropole

Divested of his powers: Delilah triumphs. The defeated Samson has sunken down on the bed while she is clutching her trophy in her hands. In an act of love employing her feminine art of seduction she uncovers that the secret to his divine powers lay in Samson’s hair. Max Liebermann transfers the biblical scene into his own time and presents Delilah as a femme fatale on rumpled sheets.

Sinister thoughts: humbly Oedipus approaches the sphinx. She exudes boundless power with the mighty wings of a bird, the strong body of a lion, and a woman’s upper torso. She confronts anyone travelling to the city of Thebes with a riddle – he who is unable to resolve it, is killed. Oedipus wins the intellectual battle. In his painting Gustave Moreau shows how the figure of the sphinx combines the indomitable animalistic element with the mystery of woman.

From Myth into the Present

Is the change a blessing or a curse? Male circles of artists, writers, and philosophers debate the changing relationships of the sexes on the one hand – on the other they are inspired by the alleged ruinous female powers of seduction.

I felt our love lying on the earth like a heap of ash.
Edvard Munch⁸

Wearing affairs, regular visits to a brothel, and wild courtship play in bohemian circles determine Edvard Munch’s perception of woman. Both, his personal disappointment as well as the fear of the female sex caused by social changes, are clearly palpable in his paintings. Like other artists in the early 20th century, he no longer focuses on the mythological or Christian femme fatale; the paintings now centre on modern women.

Edvard Munch, Ashes, 1925, Oil on canvas, 139.5 x 200 cm, Munch Museum, Oslo

The dark power of women, their sexual attraction and man’s helplessness are recurrent themes of Munch’s works. Here the woman presents herself to the onlooker upright. Her virginal white dress is open wide and reveals the sinful red undergarment; the man is self-engrossed – weakened, apparently desperate.

Loyal Husband
or Randy Old Devil?

Around 1900 family roles are unequally distributed. He represents the family in public; she takes care of the children and household. Within this family model sexual escapades were for men only.

Until 1976 in Germany a man is allowed to cancel his wife’s work contract – even against her will. This is based on the German Civil Code, which became law in 1900. At the time the husband was the breadwinning head of the family, while the woman fulfilled her task of running the household and bringing up the children. The family is compared to a state. If the man wishes to participate in public life, he must be the authority controlling his family members.

He is their guardian, protector, and provider. The woman’s duties are confined to keeping the working man free of any obligations in his private life. In spite of the romantic ideal of love, most marriages are arranged, since they are considered economic investments. It is therefore not surprising that numerous artists – female and male, deal with the subject in their work.

Women’s Education

Following the bourgeois ideal, women are taught the skills they require for their so-called female purpose in special girl’s schools. They are taught needlework, dancing, playing the piano, singing, or drawing. Their education is less about acquiring knowledge than about adorning and entertaining their future husband.

United in Anguish

Hannah Höch, The Bride (Pandora), 1924/27, Oil on canvas, 114 x 66 cm, Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur

The work’s title refers t a Greek myth, according to which Pandora opened a forbidden box. It contains all imaginable horrors, which now threaten mankind. In Hannah Höch’s painting, too, there is a winged tin, together with a heart chained to a block, a baby, a weeping eye, and other objects. While the man is standing on a plinth upright and motionless, the bride with her oversized child’s head is insecurely looking up. The wedding seems to be overshadowed by concerns.

Sentenced to Marriage

Thomas Theodor Heine (1867–1948), Execution, 1892, Oil and gouache on canvas, 60 x 99 cm, Private collection

A woman with a blue executioner’s sword is driving a man over a footbridge. He is desperately burying his face in his hands; a Billy goat – a conventional allusion to male sexuality – is preceding him. The procession is surrounded by countless black swans, symbolising the opposite of love. Execution is one of several works in which Thomas Theodor Heine expresses his repudiation for the bourgeois institution of marriage.

Adultery and Honour

During the 19th century affairs of men were easily excused. For women they could be of devastating consequences. Children born out of wedlock have no right to alimony or their father’s recognition. To women this implies a high financial and social risk. At the time a woman’s honour was inextricably bound to her “purity”. This means that she has to abstain or to be faithful to her husband. Male honour is not bound to physical conditions. It is unaffected by adultery or premarital sexuality. Instead a man earns respect through professional and social success as well as the representation of values such as courage, strength and the ability to put up a fight.

The Forbidden Hour

An encounter with a difference: hardly the meeting of a married couple.

Félix Vallotton, The Visit, 1899, Gouache on cardboard, 55.5 x 87 cm, Kunsthaus Zürich

The man receives the woman still wearing her coat, hat and gloves. The open door to the bedroom and the clock on the chest of drawers indicate what will happen next. It is five o’clock – a hidden hint at an erotic adventure. In Paris married women did not have the opportunity for advances at night. “Tea time” on the other hand provided a great excuse to meet other men.

Researching Sexuality

At the turn of the century nascent sexual sciences change the notion of two separate gender roles. “Psychopathia sexualis” (1886) by Richard Krafft-Ebing or Havelock Ellis’ “Man and Woman” (1894) are core publications in this context. Sigmund Freud considers sexuality from a psychoanalytical point of view. The scientists are systematically observing erotic drives and sexual leanings. Sexuality is being publicly discussed. Concepts such as “free love” become fashionable, traditional relational models and attitudes of morality are being questioned.

Sex sells

Prostitution is considered a mass phenomenon in the 19th century.

In the 19th century famine and poverty force numerous countrypeople to move into the cities, where they hope to find work. The quick influx is difficult to manage. Mass unemployment and social hardship prevail. Women, who independently live in the large cities, find that prostitution is the most lucrative source of income. Prostitutes are made responsible for transferring venereal disease; syphilis and gonorrhoea symbolise the degeneration of morals and are considered a threat to society. Predominantly women are blamed for this.

Only in the 20th century effective treatment is developed. Above all female prostitutes are forced to undergo treatment, while the number of men with venereal disease registered at the walk-in clinics is considerably higher.

Once the artist Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler has moved to Hamburg, she wanders through St. Pauli and documents the nightlife in many of her works. The self-confident prostitutes, as well as the worn out strumpets fighting for survival fascinate her. Her head held high Lissy, too, fixates the viewer. Her tantalising pose and the two punters in the background place her in a brothel.

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Lissy, 1931, Watercolour over pencil, 68 x 49 cm, Private collection

Josef Scharl, Battered Prostitute, 1931, Oil on canvas, 87.5 x 56.5 cm, Collection of Hartwig Garnerus

Strangulation marks, bruises, naked and shaven close: the painting by Josef Scharl shows the downside of prostitution. The women are at the mercy of male violence, the number of sexual crimes is rising. The victim’s intense and at the same time expressionless gaze gives the viewer food for thought.

Lust for Murder

Beastly actions are typical of the First World War and lead to a decline in values, which also affects the time after the war.

Hedonism is an outlet for the cruel experiences. Artists and writers strive to express the social crisis – sexual murder advances to a meaningful motif.

Real-life examples like Peter Kürten, who killed girls and women and then drank their blood in the 1920s and 1930s, or Jack the Ripper, who brutally murdered London prostitutes from 1888, served as inspiration.

Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, The Dreamer II, 1919, Oil on canvas, 119 x 121 cm, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt

Lost in thought the man stares into the void. Above him a dreamlike sequence of togetherness. But soon the cruelty of the painting emerges: the bloody knife is still lying on the table, the naked corpse of the victim is visible in the background. A picture on the wall next to the body shows a street scene – possibly an allusion to where the murderer met his victim.

What man has not wanted to murder his beloved in a moment of silent rage?
Franz Blei, 1924⁹

Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1925/26, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung

The seductive dance of the scantily dressed woman does not fail to take effect. The men are lusting after her and lost control over their actions. But the femme fatale threatens danger: she was created a robot in human guise to lead the city Metropolis to ruin. Her plan seems to add up, she has spell-bound the decadent men of the upper world.

“Metropolis” is the title of Fritz Lang’s dark vision of the future. In his movie he deals with the fear of technology taking over increasingly industrialised society as well as his fear of empowered woman.

Who is Wearing
the Trousers?

To return to the role of housewife and mother or to enjoy the newly gained legal, political and social liberties?

During the First World War women filled the gaps in the labour market, advanced into industry and economy and found a new self-confidence, whereas men returned from the frontline often injured or traumatised. As a consequence of the emancipation movement more and more European states introduce the vote for women. In 1918 the Weimar Republic finally follows suit; Finland had been the first in 1906.

Even after the war a large part of the female population sought gainful employment, so in 1925 almost a third of all married women were working. The traditional relationship of the sexes loses validity.

New Rights for Women

Only a few months after the demise of the monarchy the Council of People’s Deputies paved the way for the women’s vote: in November 1918 all citizens over the age of 21 years gain the active and passive right to vote. Almost 90 percent of the female voters make use of their new right in the following year; after the election 10 percent of the delegates are women. The members of parliament focus on “women’s issues” above all – they introduce minimum wages and social insurance for homeworkers, extend maternity rights and enforce the approval of female lawyers and judges among other things. In terms of economy and finance male delegates remain in charge.

Women in Trousers

Role play: gender identities are being tried and questioned.

In the 1920s women’s demands for equal rights become stronger and they are guided by traditionally male behavioural patterns. They express this lifestyle in their garments, too: wide trousers, shirts with cuff-links, bob.

The garconne-style gains currency in public through advertisements, magazine-illustrations and popular movies. Critics feel that this modern style of dress threatens values, norms and in addition poses a risk to female fertility.

Karl Hubbuch, Hilde with Hairdryer, Bicycle and Breuer Chair, 1928/29, Watercolour over crayon on cardboard, 57 x 74 cm, Collection of Christina and Volker Huber

Full of confidence Hilde, the partner of the painter Karl Hubbuch, is sitting in her armchair. The hairdryer, a hugely advance gadget at the time is casually aimed at the bed, her feet are resting on her bicycle. Hubbuch presents a very unusual image of woman – this is also evident in her modern style of clothing: woman wearing trousers!

What Makes Man a Real Man?

In the First World War men were called on to prove their honour by fighting for their country. Those not enlisting to fight were ridiculed.

The war had crippled many men physically and psychologically. The expectations of men were under scrutiny. Many men are seeking a new male identity.

Manicured fingernails contradict a masculine appearance.

Otto Dix, Portrait of Jean-Jacques Bernauer, 1937, Mixed media on canvas, 169.8 x 90.2 cm, Private collection, Berlin

Full red lips and long eyelashes are associated with representations of women.

Rigid like a statue Jean-Jacques Bernauer poses for Otto Dix. His suit does not seem to be made from soft fabric, it looks more like body armour. Precious accessories emphasize an elegant masculinity. Looking more closely, however, the sitter plays with his identity, showing some feminine traits.

Man or Woman?

Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, ca. 1922 (illus.), Gelatin silver print, 13.9 x 9 cm, Courtesy of the Jersey Heritage Collections

“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” Claude Cahun explains in 1930¹⁰. Born as Lucy Schwob she recognises early on that she does not comply with traditional gender roles. She shaves her head and adopts the gender-neutral pseudonym Claude Cahun. Her oeuvre comprises photographic self-portraits as well as numerous written pieces, where she questions conventional gender roles.

Woman as Man

Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., from: Boîte, 1919/1963, Colour copy of a painted postcard, 32 x 25.1 cm (sheet), Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, on permanent loan from the Adolf-Luther-Stiftung Krefeld

Marcel Duchamp and his circle frown upon bourgeois ideals and conventional genres in art. Finishing off a picture of the Mona Lisa with a chin beard and a moustache – a symbol of bourgeois masculinity – he plays with feminine and masculine identity. Duchamp further adds five letters “L.H.O.O.Q.” – in French they read “Elle a chaud au cul”, meaning as much as “She has a hot behind”. Thereby he imbues the icon of femininity with a sexually provocative character.

Leaving Boundaries Behind

In the early 20th century Sigmund Freud’s writings are met with great interest. The neurologist from Vienna is determined to thoroughly research the human soul.

The Surrealist group was founded in 1924 with the aim of artistically exploring the unconscious. They sought to dissolve the border of dream and reality by pushing the boundaries of rational normative barriers. The artists found inspiration in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic studies.

The Surrealists aimed to overcome the battle of the sexes. They were particularly interested in the figure of the androgyne, a mythological hermaphrodite with male and female sexual characteristics. To the Surrealists the androgyne represents the crossing of the sexual boundaries as well as the synthesis of sexual differences.

Max Ernst, Attirement of the Bride, 1940, Oil on canvas, 129.6 x 96.3 cm, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

Four breasts, a round stomach and a penis: Max Ernst painted an androgynous figure into the lower right hand side corner of his painting. A naked woman with a bird’s head, shrouded in a feather cape occupies the centre of the picture. She is accompanied by a green birdlike creature pointing a spear in the direction of the woman’s sexual organs, covered by her hand.

In his oeuvre the artist often represented himself as the bird figure “Loplop”. The title of the painting suggests that the female figure must be Leonora Carrington, Ernst’s partner at the time he began working on the painting. He called her the “Bride of the Wind”.

Wonderful Woman

Woman plays an important role when it comes to the work of the Surrealists. They see in female emancipation one of the key prerequisites for revolutionising bourgeois society.

Nevertheless the Surrealists are a group of men to start with. Only in the 1930s female artists join. Woman is idealised as an enigmatic, superhuman being, mediating between man and nature. The women they represent are ambivalent – oscillating between the role of the threatening seductress and that of the saviour. Frequently they become hybrid creatures.

Meret Oppenheim, My Nurse, 1936/67, Metal, shoes, string and paper, 14 x 21 x 33 cm, Moderna Museet, Stockholm

[The] time has come to value the ideas of woman at the expense of those of man […].
André Breton, 1944¹¹

The women artists in the Surrealist circle seek to create an image of woman that differs from that of their male colleagues in many ways.

Meret Oppenheim humorously plays with the female role as passive object of desire, by serving a pair of high heals dressed like a roast goose on a plate. The stilettos can be read as the female body, while the ties allude to male fantasies of bondage.

In Two Minds

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, Dedicated to Marte R. Gómez, 1946, Pencil on paper, 38.5 x 32.5 cm, Collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, Berlin

Her open flowing hair on the left, the severely tied plat on the right. Frida Kahlo, an artist in the periphery of the Surrealists portrays herself as half exotic and wild and half civilised and domesticated.

Her monobrow is striking; at a second glance it reveals the shape of a hummingbird. In Mexican popular culture the bird embodies luck in love, while Kahlo often uses it to represent her disappointment with regards to her marriage to the artist Diego Rivera.

Frida Kahlo, The Little Deer, 1946, Oil on masonite, 22.5 x 30.2 cm, Private collection

Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait The Little Deer is highly symbolic. The combination of a woman’s head and the male animal’s body results in an androgynous creature. The arrows refer to representations of the martyr St. Sebastian, pierced by the shots of archers. The deer is considered a sacrificial animal. Kahlo makes use of its symbolic meaning, to express the emotional pain Riviera caused her with his infidelity.

At the same time the injuries indicate her physical suffering. Yet, harbingers of hope are also included in the painting: the blue ocean and the lightening in the background cite natural powers, a realm that Kahlo associated with femininity and protection.

From Franz von Stuck to Frida Kahlo: the debate on the relationship of the sexes radically changed from the latter half of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century, which is also reflected in the arts.

The core questions have currency still today and the debate remains similarly intense. Do man and woman have truly equal rights? Is gender socially constructed? What is feminine, what is masculine? One thing that is certain:

the battle of the sexes is far from over.

Hint

Lee Miller’s photograph is a clever gimmick, full of irony.

Lee Miller, Nude Back, 1930, Exhibition print, digital c-print, 27 x 22 cm, Lee Miller Archives

I’d rather take a picture than be one.
Lee Miller¹²

A photograph of the bare back and buttocks of a woman: Lee Miller staged the body against a dark background. The frame is consciously chosen: the female nude appears to recall the male genital.

Having started her career as an international fashion model, the artist becomes Man Ray’s photographic assistant in Paris in 1929. Soon after she opens her own photo studio. In her photograph Miller questions social gender roles. From 1942 she works as a war journalist, a profession that had previously been the domain of men.