Ethelinthesalads 1968

Curator: Looking at this drawing, "Ethelinthesalads," made by Jim Nutt in 1968, one is immediately struck by its oddness, this almost cartoonish, surreal figure rendered in what appears to be colored pencil. It has a fever dream quality to it. Editor: Yes, "fever dream" feels accurate. The layered, almost crude application of the colored pencil gives the figure an unstable presence, like a grotesque doll made of cheap materials, constantly on the verge of falling apart. Curator: Exactly, the drawing subverts conventional representation to make some rather unsettling claims about body image and gender. This image offers an absurdist distortion, reflecting societal pressures related to women and sexuality in the 60s. Editor: I'm drawn to the almost ornamental quality of the rendered textures and lines. Look at the repeated looping forms in the lower part of the image, and compare them with the hair and beard, which are all quite organic in nature, despite the overt artifice. Curator: That brings forth ideas regarding consumption and how women are being treated in the culture. The 'salads' mentioned in the work title could represent objectification. This work seems to scream that the patriarchal gaze can turn bodies into a spectacle and a consumable object. Editor: I am most interested in how Nutt treats line, and particularly contour here. He isolates certain edges of the figure and landscape elements with deliberate bands of shadow, further emphasizing that fractured, modular sense that the piece holds together very tenuously. Curator: It also invites us to challenge mainstream ideas. This is expressionism meeting modernism to engage viewers on feminism and politics. The work is a statement regarding how female representation has been built over time by dominant cultures. Editor: Right, and there's also a subversive delight in craft here. Nutt utilizes these decidedly modest, mundane materials like colored pencil to portray this, a decidedly visceral response, that lends the image an undeniable physical presence that demands to be considered. Curator: Examining the drawing through a historical lens provides deeper cultural critiques that Jim Nutt is expressing, urging for societal reflection of ingrained power structures and cultural narratives. Editor: Reflecting on "Ethelinthesalads", it strikes me how the materiality actively amplifies the disturbing content that Nutt portrays; a striking confluence of materials, process, and culture.