LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on Masonite

Size Notes:

4 by 6 inches

Edition:

Why giraffes? Abercrombie famously said It is always myself that I paint?? and, as I have argued elsewhere, even in her still life paintings and empty rooms she is present. The repertoire of personal objects that recur in her paintings come to stand in for the artist herself. As I thought about the giraffe imagery it occurred to me that the tall, long-necked Abercrombie may have found in this animal another stand in for herself. She adopted the owl and the cat, familiars of the witch, for compositions in which she wanted to emphasize those roles; she might have chosen to identify with the giraffe, a less familiar creature but something of a unique outlier as she was herself. There are numerous Self Portraits in which her neck is elongated (for example, Self Portrait in White Beret, 1935, private collection; Self Portrait of My Sister, 1941, Art Institute of Chicago; Self and Cat [Possums], 1953, Maurer Collection). And in the many images of Abercrombie in a room or a landscape, her neck also appears unnaturally long (for example, A Game of Kings, 1947, location unknown; Strange Shadows [Shadows and Substance], 1950, private collection; Search for Rest, 1951, Dijkstra Collection; Gertrude and Christine, 1951, location unknown).

Description:

SIGN UP or LOG IN

Markings:

signed Abercrombie and dated '54 (lower right)