Marat

€ 2.720, 00

Marat was a member of the French revolution, murdered by Charlotte Corday. Due to a skin disease he was usually in a bathtub. Even though there are many paintings of both Marat and Charlotte, you never get to see into the bathtub.

Which is weird, because there are hunderds of paintings of women in bathtubs or in the water, usually from a top view, exposing their nudity. Even contemporary (usually male) artists depict this theme quite often. Men in bathtubs miss from the entire art history, with the exception of Marat.

But he is always painted from the side, his nudity sheltered from the viewer. What justifies the overexposed female body versus the covered male body? And in what way does this influence our view of women, men and the world?

So hereby, my Marat, in the bath he died in, from a top view.

As Catherina McCormack stated in her wonderful book Women in the Picture: ‘It is an admittance that looking, and who gets to look, and make art, is more about power and control than we might first be inclined to think. It is about who gets to tell their version of the story and who makes an object out of whom.’

Throughout art history we see many sexualized women in phallic shaped bathtubs. Because round shapes are assiociated with feminity I placed Marat in a round bathtub.

This is my version of Marat. In a round bathtub, unsheltered from our view.