RT Article
T1 Flowers Disguised: Woman's Voice through the Catholic Tradition in the Art of Maria Tomasula
JF Religion and the arts
VO 23
IS 1/2
SP 100
OP 123
A1 Kang, Soo Yun 1964-
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1685185215
AB Since the late twentieth century, Latina artists have used Catholic images, such as depictions of altars and the Virgin of Guadalupe, to speak both for themselves and for women's issues at large. Maria Tomasula seems far from that norm, since she focuses on tightly constructed, dramatic still life, painted in the traditional European illusionistic manner. She reveals, however, Catholic influences and feminist messages in her flower paintings. This article aims to unveil the woman's voice in the works of still life by Tomasula, as communicated through embedded Catholic symbolism and references. It will examine how her works evoke the home altar tradition as well as images of saints in martyrdom to speak for the Mexican American woman. This article also applies the concept of the abject, as espoused by Kristeva to denote a woman's realm, to Tomasula's art. Tomasula's still lifes thus ultimately delineate a woman's space and her discrete experience.
K1 Day of the Dead
K1 Julia Kristeva
K1 Maria Tomasula
K1 Sacred Heart
K1 abject
K1 Martyrdom
K1 ofrenda
K1 skull
K1 still life
K1 woman's voice
DO 10.1163/15685292-02301005