Girls in the Surf with Moon Casting a Shadow 1962

Editor: Here we have Joan Brown's "Girls in the Surf with Moon Casting a Shadow" from 1962, created using oil paint. I'm really struck by the texture, those thick impasto strokes. What do you make of her choices here? Curator: Well, look at the materiality itself: the sheer volume of paint applied. This isn’t just representation, it’s about the physical act, the labor of applying pigment. Think about what "oil paint" meant in 1962. Was it a readily available material for women artists to experiment with so boldly? Editor: I guess it probably wasn't, right? Curator: Precisely. And see how she builds form – the bodies, the supposed "moonlight" – entirely out of these palpable dabs of color? This calls into question the very nature of 'subject.' What becomes primary - the figures or the material which constructs them? And consider the "surf." Is it realistically rendered or another mass of manipulated material? Editor: So it’s less about depicting something recognizable and more about what she can *do* with oil paint? Curator: Exactly. The heavy impasto subverts the traditional idea of oil painting as a window onto reality, instead foregrounding its own made-ness. Also, look at her choice of subjects, seemingly "girls," challenging established notions of feminine beauty as traditionally depicted, particularly the idea of the female nude and how Brown is appropriating, and even questioning, this depiction. Is she being subversive, or just experimenting with available materials? Editor: It's interesting how the materiality affects how we understand the theme. I hadn't considered that the process and the cultural context of artmaking could have such a profound impact on meaning. Curator: Material, labor, context: they are all intrinsically linked, wouldn’t you agree?