Final preview of May - and, yes, I know it's already May - plus Hollywood and Argentina

Venus Cosmeticus - acrylic on panel - 24x24 - 2015. From my show - "95 / 15" - that opens May 5th at Froelick Gallery in Portland.

Today's post is really just to show off and to give context to a new painting, Venus Cosmeticus, one of the more flashy items in my soon-to-open show at Froelick Gallery. With my well-documented love of "big hair", maybe it will come as no surprise that I've been a little bit obsessed lately - artistically, anyway - with the elaborate, often lavishly accessorized, often steeply ascending coiffures of the mid-1940s. Modeled by many of the world's great glamour queens of the period, from peak-of-her-career Betty Grable to early Eva Perón, they're often as ridiculous as that infamous pouf of the 1770s - so frequently seen in my work - and, to my perverse way of thinking, just as charming.

Detail of above.

It was little more than "40s hair" that inspired the three paintings which comprised "The Judgement of Paris", from last year's show at Winston Wächter in Seattle:

Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena - each acrylic on panel - 24x24 - 2014.

Strange that I'd be able to pinpoint the spark of this recent mania, but I feel pretty certain it was set in motion by repeated exposure to this wonderfully metallic construction, worn by Claire Trevor in "Murder My Sweet":

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Speaking of the aforementioned mesdames Grable and Perón, here are some examples of their lovely "hair art":

Betty Grable.

In this follicular contest, I'd say Miss Grable wins points for variety and novelty, while Evita earns hers for volume, consistency, and overall drama:

Eva Perón.

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During the same brief period there was also a major vogue for wearing flowers - sometimes oversized, themselves - in the midst of all that hair.

Ann Miller.

Singer and actress Ruby Hill.

Dorothy Lamour.

Esther Williams.

Hedy Lamarr.

Newlyweds Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Ida Lupino.

Lana Turner.

Veronica Lake.

Betty Hutton. (Just like it says.)

Francine Everett.

And again, from another scene in "Murder My Sweet", Claire Trevor.

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And, finally, from the same period, though decidedly less glamorous:

Leda and the Swan - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2015. The hair in a variable style known as "victory curls". Also part of the Froelick show.

Eva Perón, portraits by Numa Ayrinhac

The official portrait of Argentina's President and First Lady, 1948.

I adore this painting; it's remarkably glamorous and ridiculous in equal measure.  Evita, bejeweled and with her figure wonderfully and impossibly "corrected", swoons fetchingly, clinging to the manly arm of the ham-faced President of Argentina - having done more than anyone to bring her husband to power.  Her pose is characteristic of her public persona in relation to Perón - fawning and passive - while ironically, tellingly, the gorgeously rendered satin sweep of her lavishly trained gown becomes the focal point of the painting.

I love how the lighting and the pose conspire to give us a spot-lit glimpse of the dainty, beautifully-shod foot.

Eva wearing the gown shown in the painting; it was the creation of celebrated French designer Jacques Fath.

The painting and the original gown displayed together.

Ayrinhac painted several portraits of Evita.  I haven't been able to find any information about the whereabouts of the next four, if in fact any of them survive.  They all display the same charming "figure correction".  I would love to see - have seen? - these in color.

A print of the best known portrait of Evita, which was painted in 1950. Widely
reproduced, it is only known now through those reproductions, as the original
was purportedly destroyed during the 1955 coup that ousted Perón.

The image was used both for the cover and frontispiece of Eva's best-selling autobiography,
"The Reason of my Life", published shortly before her death in 1952.

The same painting was used as a basis for several variations.

One of the posters that were a constant in Buenos Aires during the Perón years, this one heralding Evita as the "refuge of the humble".

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Numa Ayrinhac (1881, Aveyron – 23 March 1951, Buenos Aires), Franco-Argentine artist.  At the age of five, he moved with his parents to the new French colony of Pigüé, Argentina.  He specialized in landscapes and portraits, but is best known as the official artist of the Peróns.