Les Baigneuses II 1972

Curator: Léenor Fini’s "Les Baigneuses II," painted in 1972, greets us with this scene of figures submerged, perhaps in water, perhaps something more ethereal, rendered delicately in watercolor. Editor: Ethereal is right! It’s dreamlike, almost melancholic. There's this muted palette, blues and fleshy pinks, which gives it such a soft, hazy quality, as if seen through a heatwave or a memory. The scale adds to the effect too—it feels intimately sized. Curator: The watery medium certainly reinforces that sense of immersion. I'm drawn to the figures, almost like pale phantoms or echoes, blending in with the blooms of pastel colors, what sort of labor and experimentation would be used in making such a composition? It would take quite some dedication to become that masterful with watercolors and yet have an ambiguous atmosphere? Editor: It's interesting you mention ghosts, I sense some tension or alienation even, maybe it is in the surrealist intent to the work with such figures with blank gazes with underwater gardens. Fini always pushes this line between reality and a kind of beautiful uncanniness. And look closely, even those waterlilies or lotuses have sharp, almost predatory leaves. It gives a different reading for the painting and the viewer alike to wonder at how this work made you feel after viewing it. Curator: I hadn't considered them predatory, more a representation of growth among femininity perhaps but they almost threaten that traditional symbolism and ideal. And it's a material consideration too: water lilies growing, thriving even, in pigment suspended in water…It's more that meets the eye as the medium seems to suggest its subject, making an even larger case to be presented in our galleries today for us all to view this surreal moment. Editor: Precisely. There's such a subversive tenderness in her art. The use of material in combination with presentation brings the water element to the foreground in an elegant presentation of water blooms, with or without malice! It also invites a longer study in both subject matter and materials that help support this presentation to exist in this gallery. Thank you for coming along with me to examine a bit deeper and learn a bit more about this art! Curator: And thank you for giving your unique approach for others to experience the art from! Together, perhaps now they too can ponder a deeper examination when art and viewer convene in mind!