A HOUSE WITHOUT A WOMAN CANNOT EXIST LIKE A WOMAN CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT A HOUSE

The representation of women in Serbian painting during the first half of the 20th century is integrated into the criteria or symptoms of social reality. The real role and status of women in the society is shaped by standards of public morality; they are excluded from all major events. The policy of depiction is defined through the picture of social stereotypes about male and female interests, objects, rules of behavior, professions and rituals. The places in which women are represented strongly emphasize isolation and preoccupation with "desirable activities." The lack of communication - the ideals of modesty and submissiveness as glorified female virtues - is emphasized by depicting a dropped gaze or a gaze in the distance, as well as by composition solutions mostly showing a three-quarter or full profile, sometimes the back and least often the front of the face. Like personal records, these works of art describe the atmosphere without questioning it. Critical stance is replaced by a melancholic and meditative attitude and an obvious ambivalent experience of reality. The observer can peep into an ambience of carefully preserved hidden scenes, comfortable nests, places for resting and daydreaming, intimate genre scenes from which he/she can discreetly read possibilities and limitations. These scenes are not shaped, or at least not exclusively, by the look of the creator, but primarily the social framework and its characteristic gender policy of viewing. Their marked unpretentiousness makes them a chronicle of the epoch of a sort. The essence of the representation is in the visual relationships which become psychological. In that gender-defined ambience women are often depicted while resting, decorating, combing or dressing. However, there are no equivalent representations of men - neither in bathrooms, nor beside vases with flowers, nor in the vicinity of mirrors, beds or kitchen tables. Least of all are there scenes with men daydreaming. Although the mentioned locations and objects are universal as to their purpose, their banal narrative does not correspond with the projected perception of the male space. We can also notice similar logic when it comes to dressing up, clothes and jewelry, which is left to women and "inferior races." Men keep wedding rings, medals or badges, i.e. objects whose decoration is justified by their utility. The policy of representation worked as a picture of social stereotypes about male and female spaces, interests, objects, rules of behavior and rituals.