We live in an age characterized by such a level of visual information overload that has no parallel in history. The most common motif remains the female body, which becomes a dehumanized object, a kind of form determining the appearance of the ideal woman, beautiful and passive. These images not only reflect the current situation in the area of preferences for the ideal face, figure, or stereotypes regarding the behavior of the “perfect woman”, they also contribute to their formation. Dozens of such images attack our psyche every day, which results in women and even very young girls not only comparing themselves and their self-confidence is decreasing, but they also suffer with psychological problems in the form of depression, eating disorders or plastic surgery addictions. Society’s standards of beauty lead to an exaggerated importance of appearance, fear of natural signs of aging, exclusion of older women from the public sphere or discrimination due to appearance, but also to increasingly superficiality and consumerism, to which social networks also contribute significantly. Women are often depicted naked for no apparent reason, as a result of which many men perceive them only as sexual objects, and this perception is subsequently transferred to real life.

The inspiration for the series of paintings was the book The Myth of Beauty by Naomi Wolf, in which she compares this phenomenon to the iron maiden – a medieval torture instrument with an attractive exterior, in whose bowels are hidden sharp spines crushing victims (I processed this inspiration in the first painting). Our society tend to underestimate the effects of the beauty myth, since its form is tempting. How could be the sight of beautiful smiling models be dangerous? Nevertheless, the consequences are often fatal.

In the second painting, through the use of multiplication, I wanted to point out the ubiquity of the myth of beauty in the form of a flawless female face supplemented with a halo crown from Christian iconography, referring to the similarity between the apparent indisputability of the myth of beauty and the Christian faith. In terms of color and style, the image is also reminiscent of the posters of authoritarian politicians used to build a cult of personality.

The remaining three paintings capture the victims of the myth of beauty – their state of mind, unclear boundaries – physical and psychological, lack of concentration, suffering in loneliness and hiding their pain from those around them.

The paintings were created using the technique of layered oil painting on acrylic underpainting. The basis is a cotton canvas stretched on internal wooden frames.

The series of paintings was created in the STARTUP studio under the guidance of doc. Mgr. art. Ján Triaška, ArtD.

Sources:

STURKEN, M. – CARTWRIGHT,
L.: Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Prague: Portal, s.r.o., 2009. 471 p. ISBN
978-80-7367-556-1

WOLF, N.: The myth of beauty. 1.
ed. Bratislava: Aspekt, 2000. 344 p. ISBN 80-85549-15-8