My plan was to do an entry on surreal-- and quite disturbing-- 1930's photographer Hans Bellmer. His images of twisted female mannequins are riveting and prescient, considering how a woman's body has become a grotesque commodity. Once I started the entry, it just didn't feel right-- that it somehow didn't fit with my March mode. Instead, I turn to Matisse and The Dance. One of my favorite paintings at the MoMA, its composition swirls the viewer's eye around the canvas, swinging up a leg, around an arm, sweeping the eye from one end of the image to the other. And don't you just love the dancer in the foreground who seems to lose her balance? The nude figures become less about being the object of desire and more about the joy of the motion. Even the ground dances underneath them in celebration. That image seems much more in line with where I stand, or shall I say dance, tonight.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Dance
My plan was to do an entry on surreal-- and quite disturbing-- 1930's photographer Hans Bellmer. His images of twisted female mannequins are riveting and prescient, considering how a woman's body has become a grotesque commodity. Once I started the entry, it just didn't feel right-- that it somehow didn't fit with my March mode. Instead, I turn to Matisse and The Dance. One of my favorite paintings at the MoMA, its composition swirls the viewer's eye around the canvas, swinging up a leg, around an arm, sweeping the eye from one end of the image to the other. And don't you just love the dancer in the foreground who seems to lose her balance? The nude figures become less about being the object of desire and more about the joy of the motion. Even the ground dances underneath them in celebration. That image seems much more in line with where I stand, or shall I say dance, tonight.
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This is one of my favorite paintings too! I did an art project on Matisse in French class and I used The Dance as the main theme of the project. I agree with you about how the objects aren't desirable because they're nude, but because they are moving, what looks like, joyously.
I love how you are in this mood today-- one of The Dance. You're inspiring me to get there myself today!
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