BP #4

The figure I have chosen for this blog post is "Standing Female Nude" by Pablo Picasso (1910). The style of this figure is clearly abstract, this drawing barely resembles a actual nude woman. Although this drawing looks nothing like a woman, the shape shows that it is a woman standing. Parts of the legs, arms, thighs and head can be seen in this drawing as geometric shapes as opposed to natural, organic parts of the body. This drawing illustrates Picasso's use of cubism to depict real life objects in a completely unique style.
In Ways of Seeing, John Berger states "a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings and taste." In this drawing by Picasso, he has chosen how this figure would be defined. He is the one that has decided what can be done to her, giving him the power in this situation. Picasso is the surveyor and she is the surveyed. Although this painting is so abstract that the theme of the work is unlikely to be based on sexual attraction, Picasso is still the one in control, he is making the decisions about how this woman is going to be depicted. Picasso has decided how this woman was going to be displayed, despite the fact that this abstract drawing is not in the tradition of classic European figure paintings the came before, many of the same issues of inequality still apply.