Head I
About this artwork
Despite the vast scale of this painting, the face appears shy and thoughtful, even downcast, and is half-covered in shadow. The artist has applied the paint with a sponge, modelling the form in blocks of colour. This emphasises surface texture and produces subtle colour effects, creating a sense of delicacy which seems at odds with the large size of the picture. This painting is one of a number of works Hardie made which were based on her own body, but it is not a self-portrait. Her paintings are concerned with feminine physicality, and here she presents the female body without a suggestion of narrative or context.
Updated before 2020
-
artist:Gwen Hardie (born 1962) Scottish
-
title:Head I
-
date created:1985
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:190.00 x 170.00 cm
-
object type:
-
credit line:Purchased 1993
-
accession number:GMA 3718
-
gallery:
Gwen Hardie
Gwen Hardie
Gwen Hardie was born in Fife and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. She left Scotland in 1984 after winning a scholarship to study in West Berlin, where for a time she was taught by the German painter Georg Baselitz. He encouraged her to change from a studied, precise depiction of the human...