#PrideMonth
ARTWORK:
He Undresses in Another Hotel Room (2002) by British artist, journalist and political activist, Caroline Coon (born in 1945).
Oil on canvas
152 x 122 cm, 60 x 48 in approx
Inspired by feminism and the politics of sexual liberation, Caroline Coon’s unique paintings contest binary notions of gender and oppressive patriarchal values. Her works cover a variety of subjects including sex workers, beachgoers, intersex people, still lives, football players and urban landscapes. All are united by Coon’s unwavering rebellion against the status quo. Coon herself is bisexual, though she prefers to keep that as quiet as possible “for fear of titillating the general public”.
Coon is a trailblazer of London’s counterculture. She has campaigned for women’s rights since the 1960s; in 1967 co-founded Release, a legal-advice agency for young people charged with the possession of drugs that continues today; and was central to London’s nascent punk scene, managing The Clash from 1978 to 1980.
Coon studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in the mid-1960s, opting for a medium and subject deemed unfashionable at the time – figurative painting. Her distinctive style is characterized by crisp-edged lines, bright colors and hyperrealism redolent of Paul Cadmus and Tamara de Lempicka.
In a recent review in The Art Newspaper, Louisa Buck writes: “Only now in her seventies is the importance of Coon’s paintings being acknowledged … It seems that at last the self-styled ‘great offender’ is getting the favourable attention she richly deserves – and now on her own terms.”
– stephenfriedman com
COLLECTED WORKS:
