Feminine Domesticity

My friend Barbara and I went to the National Museum for Women in the Arts today to see the exhibit "Women House" that contains 90 works displaying feminine domesticity. A constant theme was the imprisoning of women in the house.

Here are some of the works:

"A Doll's House" - Inspired Ibsen's play "A Doll's House"

Note in particular the room to the right on the top floor where the female resident of the house, an artist, has a nude male model.

 Barbara and Christine standing in front of a quotation by Nora from "A Doll's House"

"But our house has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll-child," says Nora, the main character in Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House. Ibsen equates a child's toy with a prison in which a woman moves from room to room, trapped in fantasies and representations of womanhood. Written in 1879, this play profoundly influenced early women's liberation movements. Beginning a century later, women artists used miniaturized depictions of the house and its furnishings to offer their satirical take on stereotypical gender roles and the (x) of day-to-day chores.

A chess set using pieces depicting household products such as ironing boards, lamps, refrigerators, and televisions

 A variety of houses in different shapes and colors - Blue Japanese House on the far left

The artist climbs into a cupboard where she feels safe and can meditate in her own space.

We had a nice lunch in the Mezzanine Cafe of the Museum.

  

Barbara with her shrimp salad         Christine's salad with greens, apples, pine nuts, and goat cheese