Curatorial notes
Michael Cheval painted "On the Wings of Fall" using oil on canvas. Here, a woman adorned in an elaborate renaissance-style dress rides an antique bicycle. Leaves fall around her and frame the picture. The title hints at the seasonal transformation from summer to fall, but this is no ordinary autumn scene. In Cheval’s surrealist style, the woman, with her stoic gaze and flamboyant attire, defies conventional notions of femininity. She appears to be a performer of sorts, a spectacle, which lends itself to a conversation around the female gaze, and the complex relationship between performance, identity, and perception. There is a touch of melancholy to her expression, perhaps reflecting the transient nature of beauty. Ultimately, "On the Wings of Fall" invites us to think about the cyclical nature of existence and how we construct and perform our identities through the changing seasons of our lives.
