Queen
Audrey Flack, a leading figure in Photorealism of the 1970s, is best known for her meticulously rendered still-life paintings based on color photographs taken by the artist herself. Flack used this photograph as a working study for her painting, Queen (1975-76), in which she faithfully reproduced its saturated colors, shiny surfaces, and glinting reflections. The photograph, with its paint-smudged surface and torn corner, stands as a curious relic of the artistic process.
Like a Baroque vanitas image, Queen is an allegorical meditation on the inexorable passage of time and the transience of youth and beauty. The large rose in full bloom that crowns the double portrait of the artist and her mother will soon wither, the succulent fruit will rot, and the conventional trappings of feminity (makeup pots and mirrors) are but vain attempts to ward off the inevitable effects of time.
Like a Baroque vanitas image, Queen is an allegorical meditation on the inexorable passage of time and the transience of youth and beauty. The large rose in full bloom that crowns the double portrait of the artist and her mother will soon wither, the succulent fruit will rot, and the conventional trappings of feminity (makeup pots and mirrors) are but vain attempts to ward off the inevitable effects of time.
Artwork Details
- Title: Queen
- Artist: Audrey Flack (American, New York 1931–2024 Southampton, New York)
- Date: 1975
- Medium: Chromogenic print
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of Michael G. Wilson, 1983
- Object Number: 1983.1203.28
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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