Lilies of the valley

Vanessa, 33

“My style is inspired by a mix of hip hop, my Mexican culture with layers of natural fibers and lagenlook asymmetrical styles. Also Betty Boop influenced for life!”

i knowwww his work is beautiful and it pisses me off because he was just such a fundamentally abhorrent person. one of my favourite paintings of all time is amrita sher-gil's self portrait as tahitian (1934) which is a critique of gaugin's depictions of tahitian women and girls (and it was known in europe in his time that he had a pattern of sexually assaulting and abusing women both in europe and in the americas) that acknowledges his artistic influence on her work but is critical of his racism and misogyny as she depicts herself as a brown woman in the self-portrait like the tahitian women gaugin painted, identifying herself with them and turning the colonial white male gaze (nonwhite women's bodies as things to be bought and consumed and traded like cultural objects) back upon itself in the european man's shadow behind her and the east asian panel she stands in front of (chinoiserie and japonisme being popular fads in france in this era)

two tahitian women by gaugin (1899) and self portrait as tahitian by amrita sher-gil (1934)