Dress c. 1936

Gwyneth King made this watercolor, ‘Dress’, on paper, but when, we don’t know. There’s something so free about watercolor, right? The way the paint just kind of blooms and does its own thing. Here, the dress is just bursting with energy, this wild floral pattern in shades of green, pink, and yellow. It’s like the dress has a life of its own. Check out the way she’s left parts of the figure unfinished, like her face and arms. It gives you a peek into King’s process, the way she’s thinking through the image. The textures in the dress, those little details in the fabric, feel so tactile. I wonder what kind of brush she used. The colors and patterns remind me a bit of some of the bolder designs you see in the work of someone like Laura Owens, but with a historical twist. It makes you think about how artists are always borrowing and riffing off each other, like one big, ongoing conversation.