CaitlinKeoghs pa

#CaitlinKeogh’s painterly riddles are as mysterious as they are seductive. The American artist often uses a range of symbols, body parts, and art historical references to question moral and aesthetic hierarchies. Her canvas ‘Bb’, 2019 is a case in point: the anonymous body’s extreme flatness meets the decisive volumes of the pearls in the work’s foreground; The gesture executed by the hand sprouting from its right corner is strongly reminiscent of a famously mysterious Renaissance painting hanging in the #Louvre, ‘Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her sisters’ (ca. 1594); and by featuring the letter ‘B‘ so prominently, the artist also hints at typography, perhaps the category of ‘applied art’ least consciously considered as such. Add to this the obvious symbol of luxury and wealth that are pearls, and you end up with a tricky choice that might very well be out of your control: which element of the painting are you most likely to subliminally respond to? — Caitlin Keogh (@icecoldwoodwinds), ‘Bb’, 2019, via @BortolamiGallery | Galleries 2019 #artbasel2019 #artbasel