In what is her debut outing at David Zwirner‘s London venue, Lisa Yuskavage presents a survey of new paintings depicting the erotic yet angelic women that she has become so well known for. Here, her noticeable subjects—whose full busts and hour-glass shapes render them close to caricatures—return in full form, depicted across a series of 14 works.
Particularly voluptuous women are somewhat of a signature motif for the painter, and Yuskavage has long succeeded in imbuing them with contradicting characteristics: they are at once human—their bodies playing a central role in the works—while simultaneously being other-worldly and dreamlike.
Some of this complicated aura can be attributed to the two starkly different realms the artist alternates between: the domestic and the fantastic. The household settings provides the women with a human quality, while the juxtaposing ethereal background reminds us that they possess celestial, seraphic qualities. These starkly different backdrops both serve to underscore the women’s heavily exaggerated sexuality.
A handful of the works on view at Zwirner depict the female protagonist engaging with a man or men, further complicating Yuskavage’s characters in a move the press release explains as an “exploration of the dynamics of intertwined couples.” All of these multi-figure paintings are sexual in nature, regardless of whether the subjects are shown mid-act or bathing in post-coital bliss.
Source: artnet News
