.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
To portrait a human frontally between the sea and the sand is as old a subject as portraiture itself. Rineke Dijkstra's Beach Portraits are powerful contemporary contributions to the time honored tradition of seaside pictures. Kolobrzeg, Poland, July 26, 1992 depicts a young, slightly self-conscious girl that bares a striking resemblance to Botticelli's Birth of Venus (Venus Landing on the Shore), both in expression and in body language. In both works, rising from the waters, the young women are symbols of purity, wholesomeness, and budding fertility. Similarly, Odessa, Ukraine, August 4, 1993 recalls Cezanne's Le Grand Baigneur in composition and solemnity. For the artist, art history is as reasonable a reference as daily life, intermingling the idea that each sitter is both a traditional subject and a modern viewer as they gaze out into the camera.
Both mythical and pedestrian as subject matter, Dijkstra's Beach Portraits add a distinct pyschological component that speaks to contemporary cultural conditions. Class, the trails of Adolescence and pending sexuality all figure prominently. Each figure seems to embody a social history based on the country of origin. For example, the Eastern Europeans are less fashion-conscious while the Americans, in general are more self-conscious.
Dijkstra's modern concern for typology is evident in the serial nature of the Beach Portraits. Each of the pictures is at once generic in type, but specific as to what it reveals about the subject. Dijkstra has said of work: "I discovered that if you want to give a general impression, you should be very specific." (R. Dijkstra, Rineke Dijstra: Portraits, Boston 2001, p. 8) This tension between distance and proximity to the sitter is a trademark of Dijkstra's work and is particularly strong in this series of six, well established to be her most critically acclaimed body of work.
Both mythical and pedestrian as subject matter, Dijkstra's Beach Portraits add a distinct pyschological component that speaks to contemporary cultural conditions. Class, the trails of Adolescence and pending sexuality all figure prominently. Each figure seems to embody a social history based on the country of origin. For example, the Eastern Europeans are less fashion-conscious while the Americans, in general are more self-conscious.
Dijkstra's modern concern for typology is evident in the serial nature of the Beach Portraits. Each of the pictures is at once generic in type, but specific as to what it reveals about the subject. Dijkstra has said of work: "I discovered that if you want to give a general impression, you should be very specific." (R. Dijkstra, Rineke Dijstra: Portraits, Boston 2001, p. 8) This tension between distance and proximity to the sitter is a trademark of Dijkstra's work and is particularly strong in this series of six, well established to be her most critically acclaimed body of work.