-Isms

One day Raimund introduced us to the works of Hans Bellmer and especially to his collaboration with Unica Zürn. When it became known that at some stage Bellmer abandoned Zürn and that she committed suicide shortly after, some women made up a narrative of abuse by Bellmer condemning him for it. While I argued it could have been different, for example Bellmer might have complied with her (sexual) fantasies and one day when he found himself incapable of going any further, he let her go. Finally I said if we do not know, we cannot judge. Still my opponents would go on arguing that the woman is always the victim. Still clinging to their narrative they reckoned it would have been fine with them if the parts had been reversed and a woman had abused/killed a man, especially since this would be novel to the artworld. Coincidentally I had a copy of a counter-example with me.

Artemisia Gentileschi - Judith and Holofernes