Approaches to the "uncanny" in contemporary painting: a gender perspective

Abstract

In the context of contemporary art, it is becaming increasingly common to find female artists born during the second half of the twentieth century who elaborate their works from a pictorical language constructed through a careful mastery of technique and craft and that are interested in representing disturbing high narrative tension scenes. In this article, we are going to start from three exhibitions that have been organized around these themes at an international level (Nightfall: New tendencies in figurative painting, This side of Paradise y New Black Romanticism) which are another example of the under-representation of women in this type of events and that confirm the marginalization and silence that the history of art has given to women. As a consequence, we propose this article from a critical feminist position that aims not only to give visibility to a large group of figurative female painters but also to defend the differences of their proposals regarding the narratives of the male artists included in the previously mentioned exhibitions and the predominant canons.