Hollywood still life

Artist: Josep Puigmarti

Title: «Hollywood still life»

Year: 1986

Mixed media on canvas

Edition: unique piece

Size: 127 x 320 cm

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Josep Puigmarti points out with the title of this painting that it is a still life created using mannequin heads. The work belongs to the dreamlike-erotic surrealist period that Puigmarti developed between the 1960’s and 1980’s.

During this period, we typically find headless female bodies, but curiously, in this work, we see a pile of mannequin heads stacked together. These heads have beautiful faces which are decorated with surrealist details that demonstrate the artist’s enormous creativity.

The work is lavishly decorated with the artist’s typical iconography: female breasts, fruit, crystal glasses, snails, masks, high-heeled shoes, tears, and eyes all over the canvas. In fact, the eyes of all the mannequins are looking at the viewer.

Similarly, we also find intense automatic gestures throughout the painting, with the decorative filigree that the artist spontaneously deploys. This gestural decoration reveals a certain eroticism.

The scene is dominated by the word «Hollywood» at the top, and long female legs on the left side of the work. Although the work appears somewhat sinister, the fact that it is replete with small decorative details makes the overall view of the canvas very dynamic and entertaining.