Christine Aerfeldt, 'Ocean Knitter', 2008
oil on canvas, 180 x 160 cm
Elinor Evans, 'Posing with Lolita', 2008
oil on canvas, 156 x 191 cm
The Wyer Gallery is a small oasis of throat-grabbing contemporary art in the midst of the ordinary streets of 'Clarm', South London, famous for Sloane-starter-families, Australians and ASDA. Past exhibitions include a line-up of forward-looking artists such as the brilliant Richard Galloway.
Hung side by side in this exhibition is the work of two stylistically diverse female oil painters. One scandalous, one monumental but feminine. The scandal comes in the form of Elinor Evans' bold subject matter in her series of scantily clad, masked women posing with various animals. A 'harem' consisting of a horse, a Dalmatian, a cat and naked women. Bestiality is a word that hangs in the air (anyone watch that documentary where the man married his donkey?) And yet the crudeness of it all seems to be blurred by the thick brush strokes and stylized painting technique.
Behind the scandal is a well thought out series of references that go back through the canons of Art History. For instance, masks - the ultimate barrier between the viewer and the painter, putting you at a tasteful distance, which also refers to Picasso and further to primitive art. Then there's the difference between the acceptable nude with no clothing (apart from perhaps drapery) and the cheap prostitute championed by Renoir's Olympia. High heels and knickers and a pose of a page-3 girl equal good old-fashioned prossy. Then there's Demoiselles d'avignon, again Picasso, the Harem idea, the stylized angular figures of the women, the thick brush work, the flat uncomplicated backgrounds. And going back even further, the use of the horse - any equestrian portrait, the black theatrical backgrounds - Caravaggio. What a feast of historical legacy. All of this makes the paintings somehow actually quite tasteful. (Possibly).
Christine Aerfeldt is a contrast in her fluid painting style and her living, breathing portraiture. Huge therapeutic portraits of women either knitting or ironing framed in miniature landscapes in turmoil, a thundery sea, an avalanche a forest fire. They seem to be at the center of this activity, like Greek gods (Poseidon in the sea for instance) moving with the nature around them. They do not repel 'women's work', they are not 70's feminists, it seems they are quite content in their actions. They are possibly at one with the earth, themselves, their femininity.
Unlike Evans' work, these paintings are open questions rather than being a code or hook pulling you back into references from bygone art, although allusions to 17th-century Dutch domestic images are there. You are not searching for answers so much. It is the emphasized use of modern clothes and jewellery, the fact the women are young, that they are full of movement and the landscape around them is active, that gives a feeling of vitality. What is depicted is the aura of these women, a confident aura as they are the commanding force over the land that surrounds them, and a peaceful mood in their contentment.
Julie Pallot
Christine Aerfeldt and Elinor Evans
Until 19 October
Wyer Gallery
London
London-based critic Julie Pallot has a contemporary art blog called Art Sleuth.
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