Woman semiotics representation in the Saudi painting

Abstract EN

The research deals with the science of Semiotics in the paintings to reveal the semantic and artistic values as well as the signs that help in reaching the underlying meanings behind the colors, shapes and lines.

The research attempts to identify the message conveyed by these values and meanings and their ability to portray the social and cultural environment in the societies during the period of visual communication, which can be deduced from the semiotic representation of women in Saudi plastic painting.

The research aims to identify the semiotics of the picture in the painting and to reveal the semiotic signs of the women picture in Saudi plastic painting.

The she-researcher found the following results: the analysis of the semiotic is very much influenced by the personality of the analyst according to his own vision.

The semantic analysis focuses on two aspects: linking the artistic work to reality, and the symbol and significance being carrying the keys of the critic approach which refers to syntactic and semantic units linked to a cultural model that exists in the memory as a signifier and signified.

The painting is a tool to convey the connotations and indications as a key function to decipher the codes and diagnose the symbols and indications of the art message.

Among the levels of semiotics reading, visual communication in the paintings which is based on visual perception.

The external semiotics of the portrayal of woman in the Saudi paintings does not describe her features but seeks to deduce implicit meanings to attract the receiver and send the artist's basic message to help the semiotic reading of the painting.

The work of plastic art is an iconic text determined by a group of symbols and semantics as descriptive elements, which necessitates the search for methods to be used to read the painting and analyze it in semiotic way to enhance the connection between the artist and the receiver.

Semiotics seeks ways of communication to influence the receiver.

The semiotics of the picture may go through four stages: the founding phase of de Saussure and Peirce who divided the mark into three (symbol, sign, icon), the plastic art stage which focused on the analysis of the meanings of the vocabulary of plastic art, the stage of classification which distinguishes among the visual images, and the stage of text based on the classification of visual images with the search for their meanings and significance.

The reading of the image is subject to two levels, the perception of the painting as an artistic composition which is subject to an aesthetic pattern, and the semantic level that depends on producing the meaning.

Hence, the sign requires interpreting the idea and the conclusion of the meaning.

The general characteristics of the works of the female artists in the research sample include a focus on the social character of the painting, the lack of commitment to the Academy rules, and the tendency to express with the details and make the plastic vocabulary peripheral.