Allen Jones’s Dominatrix-Inspired “Maîtresse” at Michael Werner, London
Source: Uk.blouinartinfo.com.
UK – LONDON – British Pop artist Allen Jones never ceases to amaze. His career spans six decades, yet he still manages to engage with his signature style and motifs in new and exciting ways, reimagining and reworking the characteristics and aesthetic that make his work instantly recognizable.
Jones’s latest exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery in London brings together for the first time the paintings that form the artist’s Maîtresse cycle, which started as a commissioned movie poster in 1975 and has since developed into a group of major works.
The 1975 French film Maîtresse, a controversial fetishism drama directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Gérard Depardieu and Bulle Ogier, tells the story of a young drifter’s love affair with a Parisian dominatrix.
Jones kept the original Maîtresse painting for himself, excluding it from exhibitions, but in 2008 he began creating seven canvases based on the original poster illustration, using the dominatrix figure to explore space, form, and colour.
According to the Gallery, the works “share the same deep, fiery palette and overarching symmetrical structure, yet are markedly different in their depiction of light and shadow and the treatment of a figure as both a plane and a volume.”
“Maîtresse” is the first exhibition to showcase the complete cycle of eight paintings, which consists of the original canvas as well as the seven canvases he created from 2008 to 2015. Related works on paper provide additional context and insight into the artist’s process.
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