Wilhelm Sasnal - Contemporary Artists

Girl Smoking (Anka)

Wilhelm Sasnal, Girl Smoking (Anka) The Saatchi Gallery
 

Wilhelm Sasnal

Girl Smoking (Anka)

2001, Oil on Canvas

45 x 50cm

Sasnal's portraits of women explore modern concepts of beauty and representation. The pop star Peaches is given a degenerate Warhol glam; Anka, the alabaster sophistication of Katz. Dominika, painted in greyscale, has the allure of outdated photography suggestive of distinctively Eastern European chic.

Sasnal approaches feminine idealism as a construct of fashion. It's not the physicality of the women themselves, but rather the style with which they're represented. Each rendered in a manner associated with a specific time and place, Sasnal's portraits aren't classical icons, but models defined by their own sell-by dates. All pictured smoking a cigarette, Sasnal alludes to the slow self-destruction of their beauty.
 
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