Mind of an Artist?

tommyburgey

In terms of the brain why is it that the vast majority of legendary artists are men?

Math Is Hard

I suppose it has to do more with social and cultural factors than some innate biological reason. "Legendary" might have something to do with who gets to do the judging, as well as who gets an opportunity to be judged.

"This is so good, you would not know it was painted by a woman."
-- Hans Hoffmann about his student Lee Krasner, 1937

RetardedBastard

suurrreee, keep telling yourself that! :)

Evo

Back through history, women weren't educated, they were not allowed to apprentice and they were not allowed to work as painters or sculptors, this was the world of men.

RetardedBastard, I suggest you start learning history. A woman would never be commisioned to do art. She would never have been given the opportunity.

Moonbear

This thread started out in Mind and Brain, but as should be clear from the replies, it's not really related so much to the brain as to the social environment and history, thus I've moved this over here.

DaveC426913

Yes, I think there are some innate assumptions in the initial post that need to be teased out and defined before getting to the bottom of this.

RetardedBastard

An artist can be exposed to painting solvents, resins, latex and the components that make up the paint itself including lead and zinc. I'm not sure about women in general, but expectant mothers (even in the past) might have been aware of some of the adverse health effects that such a hobby/profession might have on newborns and stayed away from it. Not that I have any studies to back me up.

RetardedBastard

I know. I'm just stupid.

tommyburgey

Why is it so difficult to admit that males and females are biologically different, surely some female artists would have broken the mould if they were fantastic.
When a female has a biological advantage it isn't taboo (women have better social skills and can empathise with people's feelings better than men) but if a male has an advantage it is taboo.

Evo

No, but hitting some history books or websites couldn't hurt.

DaveC426913

Not at all.
You came with a question. You came away having learned something new.

If that's "stupid", I wouldn't want to be "smart".

rewebster

I think most 'normal' people think that they are 'artistic' in some way--verbally, visually, physically, etc. ---even an autistic can be artistic.

To me, it can be a developmental aspect of intelligence

RetardedBastard

I don't think anyone here has said that the brains of the two sexes are biologically the same. The unknown is probably how little or how big the differences in our brains contributes to our ability to make great art.

Aww, and does that hurt your feelings?

rewebster

hey--a woman could have been the first ('cave') artist---she was the one sittin' around the cave with nothing to look at on the walls

tommyburgey

Thanks for telling me what you don't know retarded bastard.

yes...

Evo

Here is a study on artistic abilities

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal...accno=ED193314

And another I loved this statement I guess talent is not a requirement.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal...accno=ED369681

rewebster

Well, let's take the Taliban, for example. They (the Taliban) are probably more closely related to the caveman than the chimpanzee-----do the Taliban allow their women to do 'art'?


Then, follow the caveman 'idea' down until the industrial revolution, which frees up women to be able to do 'more' --(remember that the Taliban haven't really embraced the industrial revolution yet)----and that's why (I think) more men than women are recognized (still, to some degree)

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(After the first cave woman did her art on the wall the first time, the cave 'husband' probably told her to sit down, and that "he" could do it better)