There is an element in art that resists politicization. This is true, I think, even if we accept the notion that there can be no act or gesture that is not, in some way, political. Look at the two paintings below.
The female and male that comprise the subjects of these paintings are not anonymous or theoretical; that is, the models on whom the paintings are based seem real – it’s difficult to look at them and not want to imagine something about their lives. But to the degree that the paintings are meditations on the body as a form (as opposed to moments in an ongoing narrative), the tendency to ask what the paintings might ‘mean’ (if we have that tendency) is more reflective of our own preoccupations than those of the painters. I say this even as my mind attempts to create a narrative for both subjects, especially for the pregnant woman.