The Mound (2011), left. Triptych (2011), right.
Lisa Yuskavage is currently showing her third solo exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery. In a mix of early French Impressionism (a la Manet) and Dali-esque Surrealism, Yuskavage captures the languid, voluptuous figures of the female body through a feminist lens. The artist also takes on themes of landscape, time, and plot, in a way that extends her visual resonance.
Art Observed on site for the opening
More text and images after the jump…
Chuck Close at the opening, next to Outskirts (2011).
Triptych, a standout of this new collection, explores these concepts in a series of three canvases in an otherworldly, counter-intuitive order of sorts. Babushka-wearing Russian peasants are paired with a female nude, legs spread apart, against the backdrop of a rustic, dreamlike mountainous terrain. The lazy, voyeuristic stance recalls Marcel Duchamp‘s Etant donnés. Exploring conflicting themes of liberation and restraint, illusion and reality, and transience and longevity, Yuskavage creates a world all her own full of twisted figures and artifices.
Lisa Yuskavage, The Mound (2011).
-T. Sheena
Related links:
Lisa Yuskavage [NY Times]
Lisa Yuskavage: Something Like Sirens [Artnet]
Always Misbehaving: Behind Painter Lisa Yuskavage’s “Kinky Sfumatos” [ArtInfo]
