GORGON, 1946
Oil on board. 22¾ x 22¾in. (57.8 x 57.8cm.)
Inscribed on label on the reverse together with the artist's Bolton Studio address.
Provenance
Private collection.
Exhibited
London, Redfern Gallery, 1946, no. 80.
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947, (paintings), No. 11.
City of Bradford Art Gallery, 1952 (numbered No. 275 in catalogue, but
numbered No.563 on reverse).
Cambridge, Heffer Gallery, 1953, no. 12, as 1947.
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1961, No. 18.
Penzance, Newlyn Orion Gallery, 1976, No. 17.
Literature
Ratcliffe (2007) illus. col. pl. 74.
Remy, (1978) Illustrated b/w p.5.
Remy, (1999), discussed: p. 313.
The technique is decalcomania. Parts of the image have then been developed by scraping or rubbing and colours have been applied. The central spine, septum or pillar is of thickly applied paint that has been combed to give a highly textured effect.
In Greek mythology there were three Gorgons. They were sisters and their gaze was so terrifying that a mortal who looked into their eyes was turned to stone. Medusa was the chief, and the only one who was mortal. She was beheaded by Perseus, aided by Athena and Hermes.
For Freud, the Medusa myth symbolised castration fears. Medusa’s hair, usually depicted as writhing serpents, represent the penis. It derives from the time when a young boy catches sight of the female genitals surrounded by hair. The hairs, represented by snakes or multiple penises, mitigate the horror of castration, for they replace the penis.
The painting uses the same basic structure as Guardian Angel (1946), but this is no guardian, as much as an exterminating angel. The feathery wings, or gaping feathered cape, is flung apart to reveal – what, exactly? Fallopian tubes; ovaries; a cloaca spewing eggs; strings of viscera; putrefying fruit, a breeding ground for spores and other accretions encroaching from the sides. And/or, a gigantic portal dominating the landscape beyond which lies an infinity of dazzling blindness. The image is topped by swirling serpents; the face, too terrible to gaze upon, is pure, undeveloped decalcomania.
In a letter to J.F. Hendry (April 17th 1947, University of Glasgow Special Collections MS Gen 549/529) the artist stated that Gorgon was her favourite of the works shown at the Mayor Gallery.
Described in the Mayor Gallery catalogue as presenting ‘pungent and almost terrifying concentration of power’
The counterpart to this work is known.
References
Ratcliffe, E. Ithell Colquhoun. Mandrake, Oxford. 2007.
Remy, M. Towards a Dictionary of Surrealism in England. Groupe Editions Marges, Nancy, 1978.
Remy, M. Surrealism in Britain. Ashgate, Aldershot, 1999.
