In 1866 a French realist artist created one of the most controversial paintings in the history of art. Showing a faceless naked woman lying on a bed with her legs spread and a piece of linen covering one of her breasts, L’Origine du Monde by Gustave Courbet showed, for the first time, a vagina in all its beauty. But why was this painting so controversial? Forget about the time it was painted; this piece showed for the first time the female sex for aesthetic reasons. However, all its meaning and importance lies in the name of the painting, The Origin of the World. It’s no secret that sexuality and, of course, its anatomy have been a taboo subject for ages and vaginas haven’t been left unscathed, they too have been censored. But why? I mean, Courbet was absolutely right, they represent the origin of the world, or at least the origin of all mammals if you want to take a biological stance.
The thing with vaginas is that they are literally everywhere and they hold the essence of life. No matter how keen people are on concealing its image and form, nature has always found the way to show us the blossoming beauty of the female anatomy. Or perhaps it’s just that the forbidden connotation of admiring this organ makes us over-interpret every single element in terms of sexuality. Who knows?
Remember Georgia O’Keeffe’s famous depiction of magnified flowers? Everybody wanted to find an erotic meaning to them, despite the fact that the artist always denied any sexual undertone. Perhaps the reason people have always connected O’Keeffe’s work to the sexual organ is because blooming flowers do remind us of women’s most erogenous zone.
It’s hard to say what is exactly the connection we find with this particular type of plant and vaginas. Well, not that hard. Flowers culturally represent femininity, and their shape, with their delicate petals and their center which hide the ovule (I mean, come on! It’s even called ovule!), visually emulates the opening of the vagina. Just compare Courbet’s depiction to a blossom.
Now, the images you’ve been admiring were not selected at random to just talk about vaginas in the natural world. They belong to Linda Weissman’s watercolor series Wet Meadowland. Here, the Swedish artist plays with the term fitta, meaning “vagina” or “vulva.” The term has acquired negative connotations with time but it actually comes from an old Nordic word that literally means “wet meadowland.” Playing with the modern connotations and the poetry behind the old term, Weissman creates daring and beautiful illustrations of flowers that look like vulvas. her disruptive illustrations are meant to break with the taboo around vaginas. After all, as the artist mentions: “vulva has the power to be the portal to life as we know it.” Remember, Courbet’s painting?
The images illustrating the article belong to @artlindacatarina.
You might enjoy:
Illustrations I Want You To See Before We Take Our Clothes Off
Illustrations That Will Color Your Fantasies With Pastel Hues
Source:
Curated by Girls
