“Eating Our Fathers” was a group show curated by Stacey Pritchard and shown at ChaShaMa in Matawan, New Jersey.

Participating artists were asked to examine the patriarchy of art, from the male-dominated art museums and history books to the influences that we drew upon as women artists.

I chose Egon Schiele, an artist whose work I admire and whose attitudes towards women I did not. Schiele treated the women around him as commodities to be disposed of when they were inconvenient, from his sister to his models.

I wanted to turn the male gaze around. This figure study done in a style after Schiele is meant to show the opposite of the young, submissive women that he depicted. Titled “After You”, a woman confronts the viewer in a non-reclining pose, hands outstretched, gaze directly meeting the viewer, daring them. Her pose and gesture are defiant. No male gaze is needed to validate the existence of this woman.

At the top right I have text cut from “Leda and the Swan”, a famous poem romanticizing the rape of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan. Again, the male gaze and entitlement to consume women as they see fit. It adds texture but also a hint of context for the viewer.