The Three Graces...

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on July 26, 2011 at 5:18pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

It’s interesting to see what looks like a preliminary drawing, or study for a later painting.  Or maybe it’s just another version? I also find it worth noting that the drawing is more overtly sexual than the painting, as it has a robust line quality and explicit female nudity absent in the full color work.  The drawing has beautiful searching lines, and a spontaneity that also diverges from the controlled interplay of rich color and solid blocking in the painting by the same title.  I also enjoy seeing the decision making regarding the male figure in the background space.  He appears as a more detailed individual with his back towards us, and then becomes reduced, or abridged, to an anonymous black silhouette in the later version.  His anonymity seems more decisive as a black specter, ultimately placing more emphasis on the three “graces”.  The woman/graces seem to be more about artifice than actual beings - their facial features are obscured slightly in shadow.  It is their bodies that are presented in full light and color.  The jewel-like red and purple hues play well against the flesh tones, making them warm and inviting against the clash of the bright urban backdrop. There is a beautiful debauchery to this piece- the true voyeuristic experience…I’m wondering if you’re intentionally playing on the idea of the female body on display with your title.  Are the odalisques of our past simply the prostitutes of today?   While your depiction of them stops shy of sympathy, they are not ugly or threatening; or particularly attractive or seductive.  They exist in the space in between our gaze.

I must also say I admire the range and skill evident in your other pieces posted on the site. Landscapes such Pacific Avenue have a wonderfully quiet, stoic presence.  Other figurative works move closer to caricature than the Three Graces, and are reminiscent of Social Realism, or of the gritty splendor of the American Ash Can School.  (I hope you take that as a compliment)