A feminist reading of Flame by Uemura Shoen
Abstract
Uemura Shōen (1875-1949) was a renowned Japanese artist specialist in bijinga. Her dedication to art is reflected in her paintings and in her memoirs. This artist is presented here through a complete analysis of Flame, a painting from 1918 that represents the vengeful spirit of Lady Rokujō.
My objective here is to provide a new reading of this work because the figure has been misunderstood by numerous art critics as a simple representation of jealousy. However, listening to the artist, it is understood that in fact her work is far from the patriarchal artistic imaginary that defines this deviant femininity. In this way, it will be demonstrated how Shōen uses this painting as a political language where she expresses her own gaze, with which she dismantles the stereotypes imposed by the androcentric imaginary and shows her feminist commitment through her art.
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