“Hair itself is amorphous, but you can shape it; it's inert and alive at once....”
—Julie CurtissPlayfully alluding to the work’s title, the protagonist of Escargot is spotlighted against a rosy mocha background, her hair tightly twisted into two spiraling buns reminiscent of coiling snail shells. the subject of the present work turns away from us, evoking an air of mystery through the concealment of her face - a signature feature of Curtiss’ compositions explored by the artist to ‘point to the elusively of the self’. As she explains, “I can allude to a character’s personality and internal life by dropping clues here and there, and leave to the viewer the task of piecing the puzzle together.”i
“As long as I’ve made art, there’s always been hair… I’ve always been really interested in the artificial vs. the natural and this has been a constant theme in my work.”
—Julie CurtissHair as a defining feature of one’s identity has been explored throughout art history, from the flowing locks of Sandro Botticelli’s goddess of idealized beauty in The Birth of Venus (1485-1486), to the stylized coiffeurs of 18th and 19th century portraits, to Edgar Degas’ famous little dancer with her sculpted braid tied with a ribbon-bow. For Curtiss, the fascination with the motif began when, as a teenager, she “discovered old braids of hair belonging to [her] mother and [her] aunt in [her] attic,” as she “realized there was this part of us that would remain long after we are gone.”ii
Left: Edgar Degas, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (detail), 1922 (cast), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929, 29.100.370
Right: Domenico Gnoli, Curly Red Hair, 1969, Private Collection. Artwork: © 2024 Domenico Gnoli / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, RomeAnd whilst her tightly cropped framing further recalls the strategy of Italian painter Domenico Gnoli, who too imbues the banal qualities of hair with character and edge, it is not the depiction of hair itself that drives her concepts. As Curtiss explains: “it’s about all the things attached to it: intimacy, identity, culture, the concept of beauty, animality, primordiality. Hair is called an ‘accessory organ’. How weird is that! It’s alive and dead at once. I think a lot of my art is about the inside and outside, and hair grows in that direction. Covering objects with hair is a way for me to remind people that what we perceive from the outer world is suggestive, is tainted by our inner world.”iii
Perfectly exemplifying Curtiss’ reworking of female representations through a surrealist sensibility, the protagonist of Escargot’s curling tendrils mesmerize in their repetitive, abstracted figuration. With no defining characteristics revealed by their turned away face, Curtiss powerfully reappropriates what she terms the “tools of communication and seduction”iv to explore the disharmony between the layered female psyche the objectified female form.
i Julie Curtiss, quoted in Maria Zemtsova, “Piecing the Puzzle in Julie Curtiss’ Paintings,” Art Maze Mag, February 15, 2019, online.
ii Julie Curtiss, quoted in Evan Pricco, “Julie Curtiss: Where the Wild Things Are,” Juxtapoz, 2019, online.
iii Julie Curtiss, quoted in Marina Pérez, ‘Julie Curtiss: Visual Complexity’, Metal Magazine, online.
iv Julie Curtiss, quoted in ‘Julie Curtiss artist profile’, White Cube, online.
Artist Biography
Julie Curtiss
Born and raised in Paris, France, Julie Curtiss (b. 1982) now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Curtiss studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts, Paris.
The artist draws on a history of figurative painting including 18th- and 19th-century French painting, as well as the Chicago Imagists and the ‘pop’ imagery of comic books, manga and illustration. Frequent subject matter focuses on the deconstructed female body and symbols of stereotypical female aesthetics. There are similarities between Curtiss’ work and the painters of the female Surrealist movement of the early 20th century in the use of distorted perspectives, dreamscapes, and humor to reflect upon the female experience.
Curtiss’ work is represented in a number of museum collections, among which are Bronx Museum, New York; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; High Museum, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Maki Collection, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai.
98
Escargot
2019
Screenprint in colors, on Rising Museum Board, with full margins.
I. 11 x 8 in. (27.9 x 20.3 cm)
S. 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Signed, titled and numbered 9/50 in pencil (there were also 10 artist's proofs), published by Anton Kern Gallery, New York, framed.
Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $1,778
editions@phillips.com
212-940-1220
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 27 June 2024
