Artwork Title: Two Reclining Women in a Landscape

Two Reclining Women in a Landscape, 1967

Albert York

Artwork Title: Two Reclining Women in a LandscapeArtwork Title: Two Reclining Women in a Landscape
In later paintings York references other famous works by 19th c. artists. Two Reclining Woman in a Landscape bears more than a passing resemblance to Gustav Courbet’s The Young Ladies of the Banks of the Seine. Updated into contemporary clothing the women lounge beneath a tree in similar postures to Courbet’s ladies (said to be Parisian prostitutes). York gives us a new reading in which the women’s relationship is made even more equivocal than in the original picture. (http://www.academia.edu/2391276/The_Paradise_of_Albert_York) ...this canvas offers a secret look at the women relaxing in the grass in the luxuriant presence of a spreading apple tree. Dressed in knee-length skirts and blouses, they appear to be enjoying some good girl-talk on their lunch break. But the apple the speaking woman holds to her temple—an icon of carnal knowledge as blatant as the stork—tells us what they’re talking about. (http://artseditor.com/site/domesticated-nature/) Those soles of the feet! [sh]
Uploaded on Apr 20, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

Arthur is a
Digital Museum