Lachaise : another long time favorite
Here's an unconventional view of this figure. It's usually seen with a full top-to-bottom shot that shows the balance coming down to those strong and delicate ankles --and that view can easily be found with google (or on my website).
But this photo presents the view taken by a supplicant.
There's so much to like here -- made with the loving care of Shaker furniture -- so elegant-- so finished -- so balanced -- but also sexy -- though in a formidable way. This is some kind of goddess -- and not especially a benign one. What's that gesture all about ? "Look at me and grovel, little man"
I am groveling, oh great and mysterious one. Please cast your sightless eyes upon me. (and don't eat me for lunch)
Here's a more gentle divinity -- something of a mermaid. It's always the same figure for Lachaise -- his zoftic American wife -- but playfully turned upside down, she's less threatening.
posted by chris miller at 5:13 AM
2 Comments:
Modern art has a Janus face. On the one hand, it can seem impenetrable; it's an art that seems to demand of the viewer considerable mastery of arcane aesthetic theories. On the other hand, often it seems excessively accessible; all that's necessary is some easy to recognize gimmick and one can become established. Barnett Newman had his thin lines, Warhol his silkscreen ads, Daniel Buren his uniform stripes.
Botero is an artist who's work strikes me as pleasing and humorous, but I often wondered it he hasn't found it too easy to access international fame. Chubby subjects...so what? Is this really important art, or has he simply found an angle by which his works will be easily recongized and easily sold.
Lachaise also has full-figured subjects, but I feel that his work goes further than that of Botero. They're prettier than the at times too cutsey people in Botero's oils and bronzes. Look at this statue. She's as big as any of Botero's people, but while they look like they've often been fattened up by mere swelling, she has a figure, not just bloat. Also, his figures do more. Botero's often seem to be stuck to the floor or chair where their bulk has confined them, but Lachaise's woman gambols and capers.
"Gambols and capers"? - yes, of course -- but what does a Botero figure do?
It floats -- like a balloon at a children's birthday party -- and hopefully it will float right out the window and up into the stratosphere!
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