Doll c. 1938

Molly Bodenstein made this piece, Doll, probably on paper. The first thing I notice is the combination of care and, like, total disregard. There's a really tender rendering of the doll’s paisley dress, with all these details, but the face… The face is like a blank canvas where the bare minimum has been added! Two dark eyes, a thin red mouth. The headscarf is beautifully rendered, yet the face is cracked and peeling. Bodenstein’s application is thin and washy, so the whiteness of the paper ground is always lurking. It’s that raw and vulnerable face of the doll that gets me. It reminds me of some of the early portraits by Alice Neel, which also have this slightly manic energy. Both artists seem totally unafraid to let the work be unresolved or even a little bit “off.”