A Sleeping Woman, and A Black Jacket
Swallows the Poisoned Apple
Naked Portrait with Reflection
Naked Portrait with Reflection by Lucian Freud acts as an antithesis, in a way, of the two pieces I chose for my mini-exhibition while also fitting in with them. All of the paintings are their own portrayals of nakedness and vulnerability and in that way, they all collide and work together to create an atmosphere of vulnerability and give the viewer the role of a voyeur. In the first two pieces I selected, both by Paula Rego, both women are clothed but left open to the gaze of the viewer that neither of them would be aware of. The first piece, which is darker in color, works against the second, which is much lighter in those aspects. The bodies in each juxtapose each other in the way they are positioned as in one work, it appears as if the subject had a turbulent nap while the in the other, the subject seems calm and in a heavy sleep. This piece by Freud, in my mind, works as a culmination of the two. The body shape is turbulent and disturbed but the lines and shapes are lumpy and smooth; the body relaxed and heavy. The painting is light but also dull and mundane, and the clothes have been stripped away. With all three paintings, we are left wondering the stories of these women and how they ended up in each of these situations and each of these positions.
I think the addition of a Freud also provokes the question of the subject’s awareness of its viewers and how that relates to the condition of naked vs. nude we discussed during the first few classes. Unlike the women in the first two paintings, who as you point out appear oblivious to their audience, there is a n element of ambiguity for the woman in the Freud piece. I wonder how her awareness or lack of awareness interacts with her physical nakedness to underline the state of vulnerability she is in.