Artwork Title: Reclining Female Nude with Cat

Reclining Female Nude with Cat, 1978

Albert York

Artwork Title: Reclining Female Nude with CatArtwork Title: Reclining Female Nude with Cat
... a takeoff on Manet’s Olympia... (https://www.thenation.com/article/artists-keeping-secrets/) ...Instead of inviting us to untie the ribbon around her neck, York's nude wears a slipper she is eager to flick off....York lets us know that Manet's subversive painting is being subverted. (http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/20/arts/gallery-view-albert-york-abides-in-his-world-with-grand-aloofness.html) ...York’s most self-conscious homage to another artist. A version of Manet’s Olympia, the famous portrait of a courtesan that kick-started modernism through its daring stylistic innovations and ironic reading of art history. York retains the model’s slightly child-like frame and her haughty pose, her slipper and the red flower in her hair. However the black maid has disappeared, while the cat has grown to a disproportionate size. It stands guard over the naked woman like some totemic being mirroring her direct gaze at the viewer. (http://www.academia.edu/2391276/The_Paradise_of_Albert_York)
Uploaded on Apr 18, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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