PaintingsDIRECT.com - Exhibition

From the idealized commissioned portraits of nobility to the distorted psychological interpretations of a scorned lover, the female image has maintained its potency as one of painting's most welcomed yet controversial subjects. Religious narratives from Medieval and Renaissance periods illustrated the ideal woman ironically, portraying her as both virginal and fertile. Nationalistic European history paintings of the 18th century portrayed the female as a symbol of unity and equality, while nineteenth-century realism celebrated the callused hands of exhausted, working-class women. Later on, modernism's self-critical eye exaggerated and disfigured the female body in reaction to wartime fears and as an expression of the search for the spiritual. This changing symbol continues to undergo cycles of transformation, reflecting the changing values of contemporary life.

"The Timeless Body" features five contemporary visions of the female figure in narrative painting. Each of these American artists presents the woman as a symbol, whose representation ranges from self-portraiture to historical icon.

Dennis Aufiery	Peter Illig	Marie-Louise McHugh	Ron Zajac

Marie-Louise Mc Hugh, born in Bienne, Switzerland, reveals her affection for the organic in scenes of dramatic interaction between the earth's vegetation and the voluptuous female body. Dennis Aufiery, currently residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, draws upon his personal experience with the natives of Cuba to elicit viewer introspection with his thoughtful female characters. Ron Zajac's figures address the viewer on a silent psychic level. Peter Illig appropriates images of the woman to draw connections between the history of painting and contemporary media.

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View Previous exhibition: Abstraction, the Voice of Form