Self portrait

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 28, 2013 at 9:37am

Curator’s Comments:

 

This self portrait is quite compelling, though it has a deceptively simple and whimsical handling of the subject.  At first glance the figure appears to rest, sprawled out, in tall green grass.  The diagonal movement of the composition implies action, but there is an easy, genuine delight in the bucolic scene. But her clothing is meticulously detailed with a feminine, almost doll-like attention to jewelry and eyelashes.  The saturated red primary color throughout her dress and hair directly complements the green blades of grass, which slightly curl to pull her down deeper into the shady ground.  The grass could take on a more sinister quality in this context; snake like in their individual enlivened gestures.  It’s unclear to me if the separate distinctive highlight in each blade of grass is intended to animate them further, or if this is a stylistic carry over that unifies the elements in the composition, as I see a comparable handling of texture in the figure’s hair.  I suppose that the final reading of this piece relies more on the viewers’ state of mind than straightforward appearances.