The Swans 2018

"The Swans" was created by Zoe Hawk sometime in the 20th century. It's a trip, right? With its palette of pastels, greens, and blacks, it makes me think about the artmaking process. It is about constructing different ways of seeing and thinking. Now, check out the way Hawk uses paint, how she builds up the surface. The paint is applied in these flat planes of color, creating a smooth, almost porcelain-like finish. Like in the girls' dresses, see how those delicate folds have been rendered? There is a childlike simplicity and yet a high level of technical control. It's dreamlike. I think of Balthus, another painter who explored the strange world of girlhood, except more pervy! But this painting also seems to be in dialogue with a whole history of painting; it's an exchange of ideas across time. It embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.