The politics of representation as a projection of identity: The female body in its oriental construction in Serbian art

Abstract

This article deals with questions concerning the nature of representation of the female body within the so-called 'oriental' discourse in Serbian art: Who is the painter? For whom is the work painted? With whom is the work identified? With what other possibilities of identification does the work leave us? In the context of the historical codes, a stance towards a body is seen as a projection of the social, cultural and power impulses. In the first case studied, the artist (Djordje Krstic) was a male commissioned by the Serbian court to paint a series of paintings for the indigenous population and foreigners. In the second case, the artist (Paja Jovanovic) was also male, a Serb working in Vienna, who painted for the audience of the 'real Europe' from the position of an identity alteration. The third case focuses on a female artist, Babett Bachmayer Vukanovic, who was born in Germany but after marrying a Serb moved to her husband's homeland. Visual constructions of female bodies are used as the starting point for the deconstruction of ignored gender-related questions in analysing époque.