by John Gorman

Artwork Description

Theodora

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Theodora, charcoal, white conté pencil on paper, 36x26cm The story of Theodora, her staging with her maids, eunuchs, ornaments, poses, was not chosen at random by John Gorman. The East, the mythical Orient, has been the object of fantasy for all artists - and few have actually been there - for many centuries, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this fantastical East, they projected their own desires that were forbidden in the Western world, and over time they copied each other, drawing their inspiration from the engravings, drawings, paintings that the artists accompanying the kings and emperors had brought back from their travels. John Gorman, in the 21st century, seems to be taking over this tradition, and yet! How many mistakes an art historian can make in sticking to the letter and not to the spirit, fascinated as he/she is by his erotic scenes leading to the apogee of pornography, such as Picasso in his old age did not even dare to produce! Undeniably, John Gorman plays with references, too, but it would be wrong to look for them all on the side of the East and its representations. It would be just as wrong to think that any fascination with Ingres etc. led him to these distant lands and to this distant past. The 'impossible memory', as he keeps repeating, makes any reference suspicious, any model possibly erroneous for those who seek it. Of course, choosing this mysterious empress, because of her past and her dubious morals, allows him to give birth to scenes that are both fascinating and disturbing, and to give free rein to his passion for the naked female body. I do not see, for my part, real "models" for her works, although one can say that they are innumerable. We are groping along, revelation after revelation, but isn't the meaning of this series and its outcome precisely to undermine the referential system, and to lead us elsewhere - ‘’d’ailleurs - , where imagination, inventiveness, an immense culture that would become obsolete, would supplant the desire to follow a tradition? In this work in progress, well, anything seems possible... Delphine Costedoat

Artwork Details

Medium: Drawing Other

Genre: Figurative