The Muses (After Tamara de Lempicka)

2018
Forrester, Miranda
Miranda Forrester’s practice addresses the invisibility of women of colour in the history of art to present authentic depictions of the lived experiences of queerness and Blackness. Her work investigates how her identity affects the way she portrays her subjects and how her paintings can rearticulate the language and history of life drawing through a queer Black feminist desiring lens. She is particularly interested in the relationship between the muse and artist. Traditionally muses are silent, often unnamed and portrayed as having a passive role in the production of the artwork. However, in The Muses (After Tamara de Lempicka), 2018, Forrester sees the process of life drawing as a collaboration, which is enhanced when the artist has an understanding of the life, personality and character of the muse. In this work, she stretches plastic over the frame and paints onto the highly primed, smooth surface so that the viewer can see through the bodies. The surface becomes more than skin: they are flesh, real and alive, bare and on display. The work celebrates women's bodies, the joy in occupying feminine identities and being in relation with one another.
  • Artwork Details: 127 x 97cm
  • Edition:
  • Material description: Oil and gloss on PVC over wooden stretcher
  • Credit line: © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Painting
  • Accession number: ACC2/2020

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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