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Lot Essay
Curtain Call belongs to a series of 'stage' paintings that Jones painted in the 1970s. In these works a suggestion of an audience is included in the lower half of the paintings, as in this example, where a man and a woman look up to the performer on a stage. The inclusion of an audience adds another dimension of voyeurism. Jones has painted the work with mostly flat planes of colour, however, in some areas he has used thick impasto, to give a sculptural feel.
Andrew Lambirth comments, 'His paintings exaggerate the role of the senses whenever possible, the haptic response particularly. The clothes - perhaps silk or sheer nylon, perhaps latex or leather - are depicted fitting tight as a second skin, and eliciting the desire to touch and caress. Jones avoids personality, concentrating on presenting a sensation of human presence rather than a likeness. This is not realism: he abstains from tonal modelling or projecting depth through perspective. We are dealing here with the flat image, and at best, shallow space. A part often stands for the whole, a single stiletto shoe can suggest an entire figure, a strategy popular in our fragment obsessed culture. Jones focuses on extreme sensations, such as - legs up to her armpits (in that wonderfully expressive vulgarity) - a prime erogenous signal and visual event, conveyed through paint that seems to burn and pulse with intense colour' (see Allen Jones Works, London, 2005, p. 76).
Andrew Lambirth comments, 'His paintings exaggerate the role of the senses whenever possible, the haptic response particularly. The clothes - perhaps silk or sheer nylon, perhaps latex or leather - are depicted fitting tight as a second skin, and eliciting the desire to touch and caress. Jones avoids personality, concentrating on presenting a sensation of human presence rather than a likeness. This is not realism: he abstains from tonal modelling or projecting depth through perspective. We are dealing here with the flat image, and at best, shallow space. A part often stands for the whole, a single stiletto shoe can suggest an entire figure, a strategy popular in our fragment obsessed culture. Jones focuses on extreme sensations, such as - legs up to her armpits (in that wonderfully expressive vulgarity) - a prime erogenous signal and visual event, conveyed through paint that seems to burn and pulse with intense colour' (see Allen Jones Works, London, 2005, p. 76).