“Why should I paint dead fish, onions and beer glasses? … Girls are so much prettier,” Marie Laurencin as soon as advised a Time journal reporter. This often-repeated quote means that the late artist made fairly footage — and the pastel-hued photographs within the exhibition Marie Laurencin: Works from 1905 to 1952 at Almine Rech Gallery are pretty to behold.
Nonetheless, within the artwork world, then as now, “pretty” could be a slight, connoting the light-weight or unserious. Laurencin’s works aren’t light-weight, however they’re gentle, in a way: They’re unburdened by the hubris of so many male artists who painted conventionally enticing (and infrequently nude) ladies — “pretty” work from a perspective that privileges the self-important male gaze moderately than the feminine topic.
Marie Laurencin, “Untitled” (n.d.), watercolor on paper
Laurencin’s artwork responds to that custom by making prettiness a manifesto. The ladies in her works on view, together with white horses and one femme man, are like sighs come to life, diaphanous figures who work together with one another or interact viewers by gazing out at them. The sweetness that charmed Laurencin will not be restricted to a person’s look; it’s a state of being. In an untitled and undated watercolor that feels faraway from a selected place or time, as an illustration, two femme figures dissolve into each other amid watery washes of pale blue and inexperienced; a swath of light black provides intrigue to the picture.
In some works, like “Trois danseuses” (c. 1927), the figures seem extra schematic, like dolls performing a ballet, however Laurencin weaves ribbons of soppy Ladurée pinks and greens throughout and across the dancers and all through the general composition to ascertain that they exist totally inside this dreamlike realm. The portrait “Mme Alexandre Rosenberg” (1952), one of many present’s newest works, is uncharacteristically current and austere. The topic’s delicate alabaster pores and skin and pale pink costume learn nearly as an elegy to the sunshine of earlier artworks, right here shrouded by her darkish hair and the shadowy background.
Marie Laurencin, “Portrait d’homme” (c. 1913–14), oil on canvas
Nestled among the many ladies is “Portrait d’homme” (1913–14), a rendering of a Parisian dandy in translucent oils. The portray is much less an intrusion of masculine power than a modified tackle femininity within the type of an effete drag king. The washed-out palette and grey swimsuit are the one indications that we’ve stepped outdoors Laurencin’s enchanting female fever dream.
And Laurencin has some extent: Why is aesthetic pleasure typically relegated to the sidelines of artwork? Why paint rotting fish when you may paint fairly femmes? Her work is a riposte to the second-class standing of female-presenting (or just non-cis-het male) creators through the long-standing trivialization of “feminine” artwork. In Laurencin’s paintings, prettiness is political.
Marie Laurencin, “Groupe de femmes et un cheval” (1927), watercolor on paper
Marie Laurencin: Works from 1905 to 1952 continues at Almine Rech Gallery (39 East 78th Avenue, Ground 2, Higher East Facet, Manhattan) by February 22. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.