Reliquarium Collection (Venus of Willendorf)

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on October 18, 2021 at 11:29am

Curator’s Comments:  

I enjoyed revisiting your Reliquarium Collection that was posted many years ago.  The Venus of Willendorf painting is particularly provocative; she appears to float within a decorative primordial soup.  The intense and contrasting patterning suggests a textile design, with blue and purple stitching weaving through a red ground.  I particularly enjoy the upper left quadrant of the painting, which contains a number of small and varied biomorphic life forms.  They provide a context for the celebrated fertility fetish, and provide a visual dialogue suggesting growth, and the evolution of life.  The central Venus figure is compartmentalized in a way that connects her to the background, while emphasizing anatomical features that are often overlooked in the ancient sculpture. Rather than placing visual prominence on her engorged breasts and navel, the viewer contemplates her spotted head, and what could be a smiling mouth.  Her breasts are minimalized by the stylized internal contours, and her navel obscured by a guarding red shape (garment?) over her protruding belly.  I’m intrigued by the manner in which this piece maintains the highly recognizable inspiration of the Venus of Willendorf, and yet asks me to look at her in new ways.