Images and Representations of Women in Ghanaian Paintings

Abstract

This thesis is a visual analysis of the representations of women in the works of Adjo Kisser and Serge Attukwey Clottey both contemporary Ghanaian artists. Drawing primarily on Edmund Feldman‘s (1971) models for art criticism, the study investigates Kisser‘s drawings within the context of feminist humour with attention to the agency of creativity, play, and notions of artistic license. Clottey‘s charcoal drawings demonstrate some unique approaches to and perspectives on techniques and resources of exaggeration; they provide new insights into processes, ideologies and artistic impulses associated with the commodification of the female body. Both employ similar and sometimes dissimilar artistic tools and devices to reposition the nude female body in contemporary times. This study is an addition to the corpus of discourses that interrelate visual ethnography, art history and gender studies.