SUN BATH

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on November 21, 2022 at 12:45pm

Curator’s Comments:

Sun Bath recently came up randomly on the site, and it holds a vague familiarity that made me think it could be an appropriation of Cezanne’s bathers, or a similar historical figure painting.  I find it intriguing that some of the poses recall academic drawing, while others suggest narrative associations of the intersections of feminine energy and nature. The central figure, pulling up her skirt in what appears to be a pool of shallow water, strikes me as an older version of her companions.  The cyclical arrangement could also suggest the passage of time; is she the older version of the faceless nude women in the undulating landscape?  The ambiguous dark blue color field reinforces the sensation that they are adrift within a watery terrain, but their extreme value contrast marks them as decidedly separate from nature, rather than part of the environment. Searching through your other works on the site, I conclude that Sun Bath is an outlier in its obvious figural representation.  While your other paintings share an organic manipulation of form in a dark space, they appear more amorphous, and non-narrative. I am curious to learn of the origin of this piece, and hope that you consider posting new work to the site.