Material Girl 2 

Sarah Joncas created this monochrome drawing, Material Girl 2, in 2013, borrowing imagery from 18th-century portraiture. The artist presents us with a profile view of a woman in a style reminiscent of French Rococo portraiture. From the elaborate coiffure and pearl jewelry to the striped dress with its decorative bows, it mimics the fashions of the French court. But what does it mean to borrow this imagery? Is it an homage to an earlier era? Or perhaps a critique of contemporary consumer culture? Joncas’s art is informed by her cultural moment. Born in Canada in 1986, she came of age in a period defined by celebrity culture and social media. The title, “Material Girl,” invokes Madonna’s famous song of 1984, and the image as a whole seems to speak to the commodification of women in popular culture. Through careful historical research, we can better understand how artists borrow and repurpose imagery from earlier eras to comment on the social structures of their own time.