The Poetess

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on July 22, 2011 at 9:03pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

This is a really sweet piece.  The patterned textiles have a Matisse-like simplicity and decadence, setting the stage for the centralized figure.  The Poetess averts our gaze, but maintains a serious, fixed expression.  I really enjoy the contrast between the white and blue hues in the upper section of the painting, and the deeper red carpet that rises up under her small delicate feet below.  There is a slight flattening of perspective that enhances this stage like presence, and suggests non-western perspective.  The figure exists in an interior world for sure, but there also seems to be faint suggestions of Industry outside her window.  She clutches a book, becoming part of the blue-white pattern.  The natural forms painted (embroidered?) on the drapery further partition the idealized or romanticized natural world and the cool blank space that exists beyond the window.

Comment by Laurel Sternberg on July 13, 2011 at 4:01am

Very cool naive look, with an oriental 2-dimensional composition. Love it!