Portrait of Dorrit Black 1950

Curator: Here we have Jacqueline Hick's oil on canvas from 1950, entitled "Portrait of Dorrit Black". It’s quite striking. Editor: You’re right. The muted tones create such a feeling of…intimacy. Like stumbling upon a private moment. She’s got her eyes closed, it’s either serenity or exhaustion I’d say. Curator: Hick and Black were contemporaries who exhibited together and shared some stylistic tendencies of Modernism. There are definite parallels in their explorations of abstraction, colour and form. This is from after Black’s Cubist period. Editor: Well, I’d be interested in seeing those Cubist works! There’s still a suggestion of form broken into planes and blocks in this piece – that band of contrasting ochre stripes hovering behind her feels so deliberately out of place but does create a depth. But mostly it feels like something in-between: realist elements merging with a reductive form, a dream dissolving on the palette perhaps. Curator: Absolutely. The slightly unnaturalistic color palette is one area to look at more. Hick was very involved in exhibiting in progressive artist-run spaces throughout her career and was interested in pushing at the boundaries of Realism and Modernism. Editor: Progressive and boundaries are the key words there – Hick has done something marvelous by using the form of a traditional portrait, and painting a fellow female artist, yet totally throwing out the formal, patriarchal assumptions that lie underneath that tradition. This Black isn't a muse, a mother or wife, a socialite in silk. She is captured simply as an artistic equal. Curator: That certainly sheds new light on it for me, thinking about the politics of representation at the time, and also how women artists were, and arguably still are, positioned within the art world. It’s very astute. Editor: Maybe that’s why those loose strands of hair bother me so much, artist to artist, if you know what I mean, she is escaping even the picture frame and it feels symbolic somehow. Curator: It’s been such a treat exploring this portrait with you! Thanks for opening my eyes to these personal and emotional qualities within the work, to add on the historical context. Editor: And thank you for keeping me grounded with an anchor of well-sourced historical truth! A wonderful reminder about the relationship of people to each other and art in a place like this!