Idolores
Charline von Heyl
German, born 1960

Details
Title
Idolores
Artist/Maker
Charline von Heyl (German, born 1960)
Date
2011
Medium
Acrylic and oil on linen
Dimensions
62 1/4 × 60 × 1 1/4 inches
Credit
Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation
Accession #
2011.334
Assumptions about abstraction and representation are central in the work of Charline von Heyl. She challenges these assumptions through a combination of pattern, form and spatial illusion in the painting Idolores. The ground is composed of the vertical axis of a grid evoking the work of Agnes Martin (whose work is on view nearby). Atop the grid is the bust of a crowned figure Idolores, a name from the lyrics of a song in James Joyce’s Ulysses: “O, Idolores, Queen of the Eastern Seas!” This passage from Ulysses conflates its protagonist’s wife Molly Bloom with sirens - femme fatale mermaids from Homer’s Odyssey. Von Heyl’s allusion to Joyce suggests the powerful agency of creative women, like Agnes Martin, throughout history.
Image Copyright
© Courtesy of Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
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