Painting the Body: Feminist Musings on Visual Autographies

ABSTRACT

In this paper I look at autographical depictions of the body in the work of Mato Ioannidou, a Greek woman artist, who participated in a wider narrative-based project on visual and textual entanglements between life and art. The paper unfolds in three parts: first, I give an overview of Ioannidou's artwork, making connections with significant events in her life; then I discuss feminist theorizations of embodiment and visual auto|biography; and finally I draw on insights from Spinozist feminist philosophers to discuss the artist's portrayal of women's bodies in three cycles of her work. What I argue is that the body becomes a centerpiece in the attempt to perceive connections between life and art through expressionism rather than representation.

Acknowledgment

I want to thank Mato Ioannidou for generously sharing her life-story and for giving me permission to include images of her beautiful paintings in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For an overview of this project, see Tamboukou, “In the Fold.”

2. The exhibition that I saw in Syros in 2005 had also been curated in Athens in 2003. For an overview, see Ioannidou, “Astra.”

3. For an overview of her work, see Ioannidou, Homepage.

4. For more information on Plin, see Plin.

5. For more information on Bertholle, see Bertholle.

6. Camille Claudel was a French sculptor who worked with Rodin but also had a volatile relationship with him.

7. For an overview of this exhibition, see Ioannidou, “Third.”

8. For an overview of these two exhibitions, see Ioannidou, “Adyto”; and “3.”

9. For an overview of her work, see Ioannidou, “Leschi.”

10. Also, as noted above, see Ioannidou, “Astra.”

11. See Ioannidou, “Adam.”

12. Verse translated by Alexandra Halkias. See Topali.

13. For an overview of this body of literature, see Gonzalez-Arnal et al.; and Price and Shildrick.

14. See, among others, Davis, et al.; Fleetwood; Jones; Mirzoeff; and Rice.

15. For an overview of feminists’ encounters with Deleuze, see Buchanan and Colebrook; and Nigianni and Storr.

16. Abbreviated references to the Ethics follow the conventions introduced by Curley in the introduction to A Spinoza Reader (xxxv). Thus, E = Ethics, P = Proposition, S = Scholium

17. See Gatens, ed. for a comprehensive overview of this field.

18. “[T]he object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body. Or a certain mode of extension which actually exists, and nothing else” (E IIP13).

19. See Gilmore; Perrault; and Tamboukou, “Relational.”

20. See, among others, Brophy and Hladki; Gingell and Roy; Pollock, Vision; Riessman-Kohler; Rose; Smith and Watson; and Tamboukou, “Narrative.”

21. For more information, see “Adyto.”

22. For more information, see “3.”

23. For more information, see “Women.”

24. For more information, see “Adam.”