The People in Their Lives
These paintings depict the personal lives of American artists who worked primarily during the 1950s through 1970s. The artists are portrayed with people who have influenced them—such as their spouses, lovers, mistresses, friends, and muses.
Jackson Pollock is depicted with his wife, Lee Krasner, and his mistress, Ruth Kligman. Willem de Kooning was married, but Kligman was his mistress as well; Helen Frankenthaler, who was married to Robert Motherwell, is known to have had an affair with her close friend, Clement Greenberg, who in turn was also a close friend and champion of Pollock; Andy Warhol is depicted with two of his muses: Brigid Berlin and Edie Sedgwick; Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith’s partnership is depicted, as well as John Cage’s relationship with Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg. Pairs of spouses, such as Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, Pollock and Krasner, and, arguably, Johns and Rauschenberg, are also presented.
Departing from romantic portraits of artists in their studios, I have culled a collection of rare photographs of artist couples from the Smithsonian Institution photo archive. Based on information I have researched, and by painting color paintings based on historical black and white photographs, I ultimately interpret the nature of their relationships subjectively. I am selecting portraits that provide insight into the artists’ relationships with one another, but aside from the titles of the paintings, which provide some pertinent information, the nature of the relationship is largely up to the viewer to determine. The backgrounds are intentionally vague, as the couple’s location is of less importance than their interaction in the photograph.
In an era when artist culture was gaining popularity and artists were achieving near-celebrity status at places such as Max’s Kansas City, the Cedar Tavern, and Hotel Chelsea, the face of the artist grew increasingly more important. I want to capture who these artists were outside the studio and recreate glimpses into their private lives. In showing aspects of the artists’ private lives, I am depicting the artists more in personal rather than art historical terms. These portraits aim to reveal how these artists were in intimate dialogue with each other while inventing their individual artistic styles. Socializing at the same places, and partying and sleeping with each other, they were essential members of a community. While each artist has been individually credited for his or her artistic style, I aim to show how this cast of characters was deeply influenced by and involved in one another’s lives.
© Aliza Edelstein 2011. All rights reserved.