Two Crowns
The Two Crowns is a 2022 acrylic painting referencing the eponymous painting by Richard Dicksee, both visually and through the titel. The flower girl in the original composition becomes one of two key figures in my reinterpretation.
Whereas Dicksee seems to focus on the prince's golden crown and that of thorns in the upper right corner, where a dark crucifix seems to weigh heavy on the prince's contious, I want to draw the attention to a third crown, made of flowers worn by the young woman throwing rose pedals at the feet of the horse.
The woman clothed in bright, flowing garments as well as the voluptous body stretching across the top half of my painting represent two opposing images of women, men have been carrying (paradoxically often simultaniously): Those two types, commonly referred to as "the virgin and the whore", are character expectations people use to describe sexual inexperience and promiscuity.
Both are harmful stereotypes that seperate our genders as they barely exist for men. Another important difference is, that the less diserable role for men seems to be the sexually inexperienced one, whereas it is the opposite for women.
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My painting is ment as a critique on inequality and the male view of femininity.
As I would find out, the afforementioned stereotypes are also promoted by women, as an exhibition's visitor (a self-described erotic painter) noted agressively, that she could tell that the woman at the top of the painting appeared unintelligent. She had no arguments for why that would be the case and instead insulted me (a male) for portraying women this way. I asked for her name, in order to see how she portrays women "properly", but she would not tell me her name.
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Others saw the breast in the top right corner as a bleeding ass, which I like a lot, as it's taking the place of the crucifix (i.e. religion) in Dicksee's original composition.
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Below you can see two exhibition views from Tschak Boom 4# that capture two of my favourite aspects of exhibiting my art; the outer and inner dicours.
