Eleanor Johnson’s Wool Over Eyes, 2021, is a lively incarnation of the deftly curated convergence of art historical and mythological references that defines the artist’s oeuvre. Deeply inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the Carnivalesque, in which humor and chaos are employed to subvert dominant styles, Johnson draws from recognized aesthetics, refracting them through a critical lens of contemporary feminism to create works that challenge historical narratives. In the present example, faceless human figures and swans float freely amidst a vibrant pink background. Some figures are suspended upside down while others jut into the field at abrupt angles, transfiguring the scene into a dramatic realm in which notions of configuration and composition are removed from spatial conventionality. As limbs and torsos abut and overlap wings and beaks, they are occasionally accentuated by ribbon-like streaks of varying opacity. The resulting rhythmic fluidity conveys the impression of a dynamic symphony, existing in a state of perpetual motion that has been frozen in time.
Wool Over Eyes exemplifies Johnson’s idiosyncratic adaptations of visual languages rooted in masterpieces of the Renaissance and Abstract Expressionism. The sprawling, aqueous composition conjures associations with the plafond works commissioned to adorn church ceilings, the most famous example of which is Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Johnson’s gestural depictions of the human form, rendered in frenetic strokes of oil paint, draw from the work of Peter Paul Rubens, who, in the artist’s eyes, "used the medium to emulate flesh more successfully, arguably, than any artist before him."i Simulatneously, the artist cites the "erratic, gestural" manipulation of paint by Willem de Kooning as a driving influence on her work, as it "evokes skin but also the inner workings of the body."ii
While her work often elicits associations with spiritually laden, monumental biblical scenes, Johnson emphasizes the corporeal realities of the human figure. In a direct challenge to the concept of an ideal human figure inherent to Renaissance art, Johnson depicts bodies of all sizes and forms. In the present example, none of the figures are rendered in their entirety, as many torsos are comprised of disconnected segments. Accents of sharp crimson dot the edges of the human bodies, with the formal similarity to blood instilling a visceral undertone of violence within the work. This is a prominent example of what Johnson refers to as "confrontational imagery," intended to provoke viewers into deeper consideration of the conceptual undertones of her work.iii Johnson finds power in reframing art historical narratives and themes overwhelmingly dictated by men, imbuing her subversive paintings with a fiercely defiant tenor rooted in feminism.
“I like that slightly unconscious, ungrounded state of mind that sometimes is reached. It reminds me of being in a 'dream bubble' or an unlucid state, a psychological space that interests me and I like to channel into my work.”
—Eleanor Johnson
