I 1913 By Mlle Porgany

Sexuality expressed in art has had different reactions from the time it was created to the audience it was presented to. Artist willing to show the human body nude as well as those with more abstracted images have faced stigmatized reactions by its viewers. I believe both straightforward and abstracted depictions of the human body are powerful. In the following paragraphs I will describe why each is powerful in its own way and straightforward representations are just as powerful as its counterpart. Sexually abstracted imagery form may hint that the art is an interpretation of the human body without it looking completely human. Constantin Brancusi. Mlle Pogany, Version I, 1913., had a powerfully negative reaction from its audience based on its simplicity. Its audience didn’t understand its lines and features such the head shape and delineated hair that made the women appeal hairless. At the time it was created and debut in New York it was ridiculed because people found it, “incomprehensible that that would be how you could represent someone’s face”1 (Temkin). Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I, 1969 is both breathtaking and disturbing at the same time. Many critics have stated that it is a cluster of female and male genitalia. What makes this piece awe-inspiring is the way it is depicted as if “breasts and penises emerging from a rippling fabric”2 (Schifman). Although the artist
Lazzari, Margaret R., and Dona Schlesier. Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach. 4th ed. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Wadsworth, Thomson Learning, 2002. Print. body in a powerful way through the presence of physical human characteristics.
The form an artist chooses will not make an artwork powerful although its content can be enhanced by a stylistic choice. Both straightforward and abstracted images generated a profound reaction out of its audience through its content. Each invoked emotion whether positive or negative which makes both forms