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Gladys Nilsson
Jean Albano Gallery
These are the odalisques of suburbia: some sensual, some no-nonsense, some fun and funky, and some seeming downright peevish that their ravisher has not yet arrived. Hips that blowse out and (shall we say it?) slack, pointy bosoms lend a tart reality to these figures, these less-than-perfect bodies that are our daily vehicles. Gladys Nilsson's watercolors find the humor in the everyday annoyances, primarily feminine, of the suburban world. Seventeen new works are on exhibit. Nilsson's characteristic images are intimate and playful, an effect heightened by the the freely shaped figures and the spontaneity of the watercolor medium. Each expresses a humorous insight into the feminine everyday. In Pearly Shape (watercolor and gouache on paper: 40-1/2 x 60 in.: 2005) the female figure is an odalisque, suspended in space, teasingly half-concealing herself with a pink gauzy veil, for all the world a contemporay riff on one of Lucas Cranach the Elder's teasing 16th-century maidens (compare The Nymph of the Spring with her lightest of diaphanous veils). Setting off her pearly pale skin is a darker and decorative background of trees, flowers, tangles of greenery, all pending from a black rectangle whose diagonal counterpoints and balances the angle of the female figure. Inset at bottom right is an everyday scene of everyday tensions between three small figures, one a standing, somewhat peremptory woman, the other, two men nonchalantly seated at a cafe table. Sensuality in a domestic setting is always plagued by a vague sense of its own ludicrosity, ready to lump-bump it back down to earth, amply suggested by the small female in the polka-dot skirt who appears to be the mundane counterpart to the coy odalisque . The pose in Red Chaise (watercolor and gouache on paper: 15 x 22 in.: 2004) with its crossed legs and frilly undergarment-looking skirt, is all Balthus, assuming Balthus were illustrating the reveries of a 21st-century woman in a domestic setting. The low ceiling creates a claustrophobic atmosphere; the figure's long gaze out of the left-hand side of the frame suggests yearning, its source ambigious: to be fulfilled, to be elsewhere... or simply to find good housekeeping help. The smaller figures populating the surrounding area function almost as relics or memories, the populace of the figure's day. The tiny figure of the man on the lower right extends his hand in a gesture of conciliation or appeal. But her face turns away, and that left foot of hers with its big funky shoe is -- well, not kicking, exactly, but if it were it would be getting him right where it hurts: an imagined petty revenge for the small slights and hurts that are the unavoidable side effects of daily living. The bright color areas of the watercolors make these lighthearted works; the introduction of gouache gives the backgrounds an anchoring intensity. Nilsson's playfulness is well served by the watercolor medium. You could not do these works with the deliberate thoughtfulness of oil nor would they be half as fun. For those unfamiliar with the artist, Gladys Nilsson is one of the prominent members of the Chicago Imagists, a group including Jim Nutt, Karl Wirsum, and Ed Paschke, whose works have influenced Chicago's artistic scene since their first exhibition in 1966. The shapes and colors are playful, cartoon-like; the wit is mature and well-developed. Seventeen new watercolors by Gladys Nilsson will be on exhibition at Jean Albano Gallery through October 18, 2005. --Katherine R. Lieber Katherine R. Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.
Editorial Note:
Gladys Nilsson was previously reviewed by ArtScope.net in March 2001 as part of
Significant/Signifiers
(http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/Significant0301-1.shtml),
in May 2000 in Gladys Nilsson: 60th Birthday Show (http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/NilssonGladys0500.shtml),
and in January 2000 in Jumpin' Backflash: Original Imagist Artwork (http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/CHGOimagists.shtml). |
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