Ep. 11 Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sex

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This episode Megan & Milena cover sexologist Virginia Johnson & Chicago Imagist painter Christina Ramberg

Virginia Johnson

This week, we’re taking a look at our problematic fav, Virginia Johnson. And she is looking real smug here. Probably because she helped normalize sexual conversations in the United States during the 1950s. And she did some shitty stuff to get to this point. But, hey, this lady did a lot to help women take a hold of their sexuality.

Johnson was one half of a controversial Sexology duo. Considered the “softer side” of the team, Johnson had no formal training and had only earned a degree in musical singing. As a desperate attempt to pay her bills and feed her kids, Johnson took a job as a secretary for Dr. Masters in his lab. The two would later team up to look into the nitty gritty of the birds and the bees, and discover groundbreaking truths about sex and the human body.

The first publication by the team, titled Human Sexual response, focused on the series of events that happen during sex, as well as how the human body reacts to sexual stimuli. It looked at the differences between the Male body and the Female body.

Publication number two? Focused on sexuality inadequacy. Erectile dysfunction and the inability to orgasm.

Masters and Johnson would go on to publish a multitude of journals and books that focused on the human sexual experience. But all was not perfect. Things got messy. Affairs were had. Shitty views were expressed. It was bad. This week we explore the good and the ugly that our lady sexologist, Virginia Johnson, brought into the world.

Christina Ramberg

            I’mma be honest – this one doesn’t have a happy ending. Despite a life cut short, during Christina’s professional career she received recognition and accolades for her paintings. Settling in Chicago in the 1960’s, Christina’s art became part of a wave of post WWII artists known as the Chicago Imagists. Setting her apart from those artists was her depiction of the female form. Seen at the time as both a support and critique of women’s bodies, Christina challenged traditional notions of women as seen through the male gaze.
            Her work as an artist and educator built on first wave feminism. This episode we talk her early sexy paintings, being in Playboy and how insecurities can get to the best of us.

Selected Work

Early Work
The 1971 painting Black Widow, for this series of work Christina pulled from watching her mother get dressed for formal events while a child
1971, Shady Lacy, Acrylic on Masonite – Christina would sand down the surface in order to create her tightly rendered and smooth paintings
Christina’s most well known painting, her 1972 work Waiting Lady
Studies
Hand studies
Untitled painting, acrylic on Masonite
Shoe studies
A collection on her corset/urns
Later Work
Hereditary Uncertainty – a 1977 painting, one of a new body of work that shifted away from her underwear clad ladies
1977 painting Double Hesitation – this one she incorporates lace work into the segmented form
Hermetic Indecision, 1977, Acrylic on masonite – told yah, things get a little weird
One of Christina very late works, inspired by electrical towers
Christina’s Creepy Dolls
Just a part of Christina’s collection of dolls…..yup…
  • Marfan syndrome – Genetic disorder Christina’s parents worried she had, and later possibly her son, causing a tall and slender build
  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago, or SAIC – One of the top US art schools, where Christina attended and later taught at
  • Helen Gardner – Professor teaching at SAIC who wrote the textbook Art Through the Ages, still used in classrooms today
  • Ray Yoshida – Influential professor and artist at SAIC who influenced Christina
  • Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol – NYC artists, counter to the working being done in Chicago
  • Hairy Who – A cheeky group of artists looking to upset the traditional Art World of the 1960’s
  • Chicago Imagists – Artist building on the work of the Hairy Who, all united in their SAIC education and representational artwork
  • Whitney Biennial – A Big Deal art event happening every two years, that Christina showed work in, in the 1970’s
  • Philip Hanson – Husband to Christina and fellow painter, he supported her in her later years despite their divorce

As always, music by EeL