Manet's Olympia

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To measure what is to be considered art is to limit the scope of one’s creative mind. Art is what the humans can use to express their inner wants, desires, fears, and any other emotion that may be inexpressible. In earlier times, art was commonly used to express human sexuality and the lack of acceptance thereof. Take into account the painting “Olympia” by the Édouard Manet. This piece of art depicts a nude white woman laying on a bed wearing only a bracelet, a choker type necklace and a flower in her hair. Next to her is a black servant, clothed fully, holding out a basket of flowers to the white woman with a look of disapproval or possibly one of shock at the display of such promiscuousness, on her face. Finally, a black cat stands at the …show more content…

Essentially Manet sought to shock the viewers. See, Manet dove into a sensitive subject that was immediately recognized as something to represent prostitution in Paris at the time, which essentially it was. Yet the way Manet uses his talent to convey this message with the appearance of the black slave that challenges the mind to think more deeply about what is represented in the work, which I find to be a very powerful way of establishing its …show more content…

This is what again leads me to believe that this painting conveys its message in the most effective way it possibly could have. Manet set out to shock and shock he did. Living in Paris at the time, the topic of prostitution was a harsh one. Yet, Manet saw it and thus he painted, whether or not the viewers would react to his art in a positive way. In my humble opinion, art is used to initiate reaction, even if that reaction is one that does not come across in a positive way. Impressionistic art is not made for everyone to love it, it is made for people to challenge their minds and think in a different

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