[2]
[3]
[4]
[1] [2]
[3] [4]
1) "Assumption", o/c, 60 x 44", 1992.
2) "Falling Down", o/c, 60 x 44", 1996.
3) "Rising", o/c, 48 x 36", 1996.
4) "Aphrodite", o/c, 48 x 36", 1996.
by Nancy Kay Turner
(The Art Works, Riverside) Margaret Lazzari is a classically trained
figurative painter who has been working for five years on a series of related
works that gently explore feminist issues of beauty, power and self-knowledge.
Using the body as metaphor, Lazzari picks as her model a large, African-American
woman who has the bearing and charisma of a queen. Lazzari uses this same
model in a number of works--some are updates of Renaissance paintings, other
images are rooted in mythology.
The figure as it appears in most of the work is monumental--the sheer physicality
of her lovingly rendered flesh, her calm gaze and bemused smile create a
person to be reckoned with. Her body type fits in with the sixteenth- through
nineteenth-century ideal of female beauty where "heavy" was considered
substantial, "plump" considered pleasant, and "ample"
a compliment. "Skinny" meant poor and "round" meant
rich. In our own time this has become "One can never be too rich or
too thin."
Lazzari creates a potent political statement with these deceptively simple
images, not only by challenging standards of beauty but by injecting an
African-American female into Western images that had excluded people of
color.
However, Lazarri's work has become more spiritual and other-worldly in the
last few years. Her figures are bathed in a glowing, almost supernatural
light. In Aphrodite, Lazzari portrays her model dressed in timeless
clothes sitting still, yet commanding attention with her inner power. She
is surrounded by people whom we do not see; only their hands straining to
touch her are in the picture. She is a modern day Goddess.
The real pleasure of these works, besides the healing nature of the imagery,
is to be found in the gorgeously painted surfaces, the surprisingly elegant
and rich shifts of color and the spontaneous line quality.
While these paintings are built around a very human and specific presence,
Lazzari also shows paintings in which anonymous people are crowded together.
Here there is no individuality; the subjects are involved in a struggle
to situate themselves.
Unlike Robert Longo's early Men in the Cities series which served
as visual metaphors for corporate wars, Lazzari's paintings entitled Falling
and Rising are metaphors for the inevitable rollercoaster rhythms of
contemporary life. The titles also suggest subtle religious themes--as in
"falling" from grace, or God ascending or "rising" to
heaven.
In Rising, we see only the naked legs of women of all ages in the
act of jumping. Both the extraordinary light bathing the foreground and
the unusual cropping contribute to the strength of this painting. Falling
Down, which bookends this image (or vice versa), depicts a women on
the ground, amidst a tangle of glowing legs. A palpable, magical golden
light falls like a balm on the figures.
Like the reassuring and consoling light which gently caresses the figures
in this series, the overall impression of this mature and masterful work
is a healing peace.
