User:Vperezsa/sandbox

= Paintings = Women were usually drawn from a male perspective in Western art. Mexican female artists not only diverged from that by portraying women from a female perspective, they deconstructed the Mexican ideal of womanhood. Costa painted the Mexican woman in her diversity and independence in her works such as “The Bride” and the “Fruit Vendor.” She did this in a “Costumbrismo” style, illustrating local daily life and customs with bright colors allocated to the Mexican traditional painting.

“La Vendedora de Frutas” made in 1951, portrays a fruit vendor in the center-right surrounded by a multitude of fruits known to originate Mexico displayed and ready for tasting and selling. Some noticeable fruits are sugar cane, pears, mameys, and guavas. This artwork shows the harvest of Mexico and its workers, the variety of literal “fruit’ which the people have worked for. Costa once again illustrates a woman, this time a hard-working woman in an honorable job showing the “fruit” of Mexico in the traditional way of painting.

Olga Costa has a specific painting of hers, The Bride, used as an example of matrimony deconstruction. The painting shows a bride in the center-left accompanied by flowers and a colorful dress with a sorrowful face on her wedding day. The bride is shown not to be the ideal woman, has no say in the matter, and is in general unhappy with her situation. The term “deflower” is used to refer to the woman’s loss of virginity and presumed maturity by way of metaphorical wilted flowers standing behind the bride. It is a commentary on the state of the woman and the idealistic views others have of women in general.