Language of the Rococo
September 8, 2024 2:16 AM Subscribe
"Step into Flora Yukhnovich's studio." Profile in Vogue: "Stroke of Genius: How 34-Year-Old Flora Yukhnovich's 21st-Century Spin on Rococo Turned Her Into an Art-World Phenomenon." Imagination, Life is Your Creation. Warm, Wet 'N' Wild. Tu vas me faire rougir. "The Venice Paintings." "Thirst Trap." Artist's website. "Interview: Through the Language of the Rococo." Paintings by Boucher. Paintings by Fragonard, famous painter of games or play--like "The Swing," discussed with Flora Yukhnovich at the end of a conversation about the color "Pink" particularly in the Rococo, e.g. a "Fête Champêtre" by Pater (00:37:46), but also in a 1977 painting by de Kooning (00:17:44).
Well here is a bit of nominative determinism! God, these things are gorgeous, like, what if the entire world were made of flower petals? And something should be done about Fragonard, he's just too much, it's all too silk and rosy cheeks, it's like she has scraped all the pretty off him to find out what was really elemental within his work, the things we keep coming back to (which for me at least is not all the shimmering folds of fabric, I almost want the people gone from his paintings, all the clothes and furniture to vanish, and just swim in the light). And her ability to do this with other painters, other places, other styles, is really remarkable. I suppose if you had to make a criticism it'd be something like in that interview where she says "I’m not that interested in having to reflect the work through the self as well," in that one thing we like about art is to find a self lurking there, and she seems to be excising that away (I wanted the people out of Fragonard, she wants the Flora Yukhnovich out of Flora Yukhnovich)--but still, what you're left with are these works you want to press your face against and inhale.
posted by mittens at 7:50 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
posted by mittens at 7:50 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
I like these. I think they're good.
I did not go in expecting them to be good, because I remember quite a lot of coverage of this breathless nature of young women artists in the nineties/early 2000s and the art was, I dunno, well-enough painted but stupid.
It's interesting how art coverage is immediately about money and the looks of the artist plus her personal narrative of luxury childhood experiences. I am reminded of long-lost commenter The Whelk's remarks about how the art world is really mostly about investments.
Also, "this young, pretty woman artist is successfully reclaiming all those girlie things that are so very despised" has been the narrative about art by young women since at least the mid-nineties, because I remember it from then, although in the nineties the end result was cheesecake paintings. It's like Joanna Russ saying that this history of women's writing is always reinventing the wheel/rediscovery, because women are written out of history - we are always "rediscovering" "lost" women writers/artists and then promptly losing them again, women are always "reclaiming" feminine things, etc. Like, there's never a point where women artists are firmly in the canon (with minor exception, Georgia O'Keefe isn't going anywhere, etc), or where feminine things are just...an artistic subject among many artistic subjects.
But anyway, I like these and as an art ignoramus I think they have what it takes.
posted by Frowner at 8:08 AM on September 8 [7 favorites]
I did not go in expecting them to be good, because I remember quite a lot of coverage of this breathless nature of young women artists in the nineties/early 2000s and the art was, I dunno, well-enough painted but stupid.
It's interesting how art coverage is immediately about money and the looks of the artist plus her personal narrative of luxury childhood experiences. I am reminded of long-lost commenter The Whelk's remarks about how the art world is really mostly about investments.
Also, "this young, pretty woman artist is successfully reclaiming all those girlie things that are so very despised" has been the narrative about art by young women since at least the mid-nineties, because I remember it from then, although in the nineties the end result was cheesecake paintings. It's like Joanna Russ saying that this history of women's writing is always reinventing the wheel/rediscovery, because women are written out of history - we are always "rediscovering" "lost" women writers/artists and then promptly losing them again, women are always "reclaiming" feminine things, etc. Like, there's never a point where women artists are firmly in the canon (with minor exception, Georgia O'Keefe isn't going anywhere, etc), or where feminine things are just...an artistic subject among many artistic subjects.
But anyway, I like these and as an art ignoramus I think they have what it takes.
posted by Frowner at 8:08 AM on September 8 [7 favorites]
These are great. Thanks for sharing.
Another contemporary artist doing very cool things in conversation with the Rococo tradition is Kerry James Marshall: (Not Rococo, but his take on Holbein's The Ambassadors of is also very cool: School of Beauty, School of Culture.)
posted by josephtate at 11:10 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
Another contemporary artist doing very cool things in conversation with the Rococo tradition is Kerry James Marshall: (Not Rococo, but his take on Holbein's The Ambassadors of is also very cool: School of Beauty, School of Culture.)
posted by josephtate at 11:10 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
Thanks for this through introduction. I like the fact that she didn't know what to do with herself as an artist until she found the right subject. Its so easy to think that artists know what to paint instinctively that we forget the process involved doesn't work like that.
posted by Art_Pot at 3:51 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]
posted by Art_Pot at 3:51 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]
Wonderful post!! I first heard about Yukhnovich from the excellent Great Women Artists podcast (can't link to the episode, but if you scroll down on the page it's in Season 3) and I was so struck by how she reframes Rococo and gets so enthused about light and movement.
It inspired me, an okay painter, to attempt a piece in her style, and I could not nail it at all. I really thought I could go in and do a squint on some Fragonard inspo and work from vibes. But no, to recreate something in the style of Yukhnovich requires a deep understanding of form, light, composition, the way objects seem and behave, etc., and the only "easy"* part is removing the figurative details. She makes it look breezy and full of light and laughter (and I adore the Disney-fied titles of her works) but she's a complete professional.
*lol it's so hard
posted by knotty knots at 11:04 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
It inspired me, an okay painter, to attempt a piece in her style, and I could not nail it at all. I really thought I could go in and do a squint on some Fragonard inspo and work from vibes. But no, to recreate something in the style of Yukhnovich requires a deep understanding of form, light, composition, the way objects seem and behave, etc., and the only "easy"* part is removing the figurative details. She makes it look breezy and full of light and laughter (and I adore the Disney-fied titles of her works) but she's a complete professional.
*lol it's so hard
posted by knotty knots at 11:04 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
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posted by seanmpuckett at 6:10 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]