I usually really enjoy the summer group shows as a nice way to see work from some artists I've missed during the season, and get a sense of the big picture. This time, on my admittedly quick and incomplete runthrough of Chelsea, I was struck by a pervasive sense of depression -- a sort of hunkering down waiting for the present to be the past -- very low energy to the point of apathy. One of the few high points I encountered was at Cheim & Read, where an intriguing exhibition titled Female Gaze: Women Look at Women presents a wonderfully diverse group of work by women with women as the subject.
Hannah van Bart, Dawn, 2007, 69" x 57 1/8", acrylic on linen
Nan Goldin, Amanda at the Sauna, Hotel Savoy 1994, 30" x 40", Cibachrome print
Shirin Neshat, Pari, 2008, 72" x 49 1/2", Cprint & ink
The premise of the exhibition is a re-imaging of femaleness, and the assumption that there is a different dynamic that takes place between the artist and subject when both are women. While this premise may be a little nebulous, and not necessarily evident in some of the work, it has nevertheless served as a great catalyst for the gathering of powerful works in a variety of media by some great artists. There is the famous and rarely seen early Lynda Benglis video piece called Female Sensibility, a solid Alice Neel portrait, and a surprising Cezannesque early Joan Mitchell academic nude. Other outstanding pieces include a wild Marilyn Minter, a Ghada Amer thread piece, and a sensuous Julia Margaret Cameron portrait. As for the premise -- whether by a man or a woman, these images are still objectified, eroticized, and subjected to the viewer's gaze. There is however a different kind of eroticism here. The subjects almost always look straight back at the viewer, asserting a self possessed presence and control. There is still a distinct vulnerablity within the dignity of these women, it's just that their vulnerablity is not in their femaleness, but in their humanness.
This exhibition is an interesting elaboration on last month's show at Cheim & Read, recent paintings by Chantal Jaffe. While owing a deep debt to Alice Neel, Jaffe possesses a freewheeling facility and a frankness that distinguishes her among figure painters. Her compositions are often surprising, and her images are built out of slabs of juicy oil paint. Sometimes self-portraits, and sometimes portraits of friends, her images possess a blank disinterest while staring right at us.
Chantal Jaffe, Green Dress Black Knickers, 2009, 84" x 55", oil on board
Chantal Jaffe, Purple Blouse, 2007, 120" x 60", oil on board
All images Cheim & Read
