“I like to think of them as paintings that know they are paintings.”
—Robin F. WilliamsRobin F. Williams’ Joggers, painted in 2018, situates two highly stylized figures against a lush landscape, creating a work which is both compositionally unusual and visually striking.
Standing at over six feet tall, the joggers in the present work appear to the viewer as larger than life and distinctively non-human – as the artist has described, “there is a certain scale that refuses to be ignored.”i These figures seem determined in their course of action – so much so as if to leap from the confines of the canvas and continue running past the viewer. With alternate feet firmly planted upon the grass, this curious couple appear as almost mirror parallels. Perhaps most prominent is the subdued grey palette of the nude figures, starkly juxtaposed by the luminous chartreuse green, electric fuchsia and coral orange of the verdant plant life surrounding them, making their presence in this world seem all the more peculiar.
As the artist has described of her work, “I've been painting women that I like to think of as zombie nudes. They are reanimations of nudes from art history or pop culture.”ii With their chiseled forms and monotone palette, Joggers seems to recall Baroque marble sculpture on the one hand, while the outdoor setting brings to mind Impressionist nudes. Cezanne’s The Large Bathers in particular seems to find a resonance in the present work. With her usual sly humor, it is as if Williams is proposing a sequel to Cezanne’s infamous work: what if these passive figures became active?
Paul Cezanne, The Large Bathers, 1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1937, W1937-1-1 The inclusion of a male figure in Joggers does not go without notice. Just as Cezanne’s Bathers reconceived the classical motif of nudes outdoors in a modern style, Williams takes this one step further by including the male nude as well. While the male figure was celebrated in the Classical world, the male nude ultimately fell out of favor, with the female nude becoming the central subject of objectification. Historically speaking, the male was the viewer of the artwork, rather than the object of desire. What Williams does in Joggers, however, is to subvert the desirability politics of the classical nude; caught in a state of exertion and physical labor, the nudes of the present work seem to reject our gaze; they are not so much alluring as they are uncanny.
Joggers, above all, speaks not only to Williams’ ability to create ongoing dialogue between her paintings and those of the art historical canon, but her ability to incorporate humor in unexpected ways. A modern Garden of Eden, the present work eschews chastity and modesty to create a wonderfully intriguing tableau.
i Robin F. Williams, interviewed by Megan N. Liberty, “Robin F. Williams: Model Behavior,” Juxtapoz Magazine, n.d., online.
ii Ibid.
Condition Report
Description
View our Conditions of Sale.
Provenance
P·P·O·W Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present ownerLiterature
Megan N. Liberty, “Robin F. Williams: Model Behavior,” Juxtapoz, September 2019, online (illustrated)
Artist Biography
Robin F. Williams
Robert F. Williams (b. 1984) received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006. She draws inspiration from popular culture, trends from major social media platforms, advertising, and cinema to challenge societal stereotypes and expectations, particularly around the representation of women.
She has presented solo exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA; Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA; and Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally including Present Generations, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Bitter Nest, Galerie Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan; XENIA: Crossroads in Portrait Painting, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY; Nicolas Party: Pastel, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; SEED, curated by Yvonne Force, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY; and more. Her work is currently in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Collection Majudia, Montreal, Canada; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; X Museum, Beijing, China; among others. Her work was recently on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL in Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection.
13
Joggers
signed with the artist's initials, titled and dated "RFW "Joggers" 2018" on the overlap
acrylic on canvas
78 x 54 in. (198.1 x 137.2 cm)
Painted in 2018.
Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000
Avery Semjen
Specialist, Head of New Now Sale
T +1 212 940 1207
asemjen@phillips.com
New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art
New York Auction 25 September 2024