The Feminine
Richard Kehl
Paperback
(Laughing Elephant, April 15, 2003)
This book is an essay on the feminine, composed almost entirely of paintings and photographs of women. On the juxtaposition, film director Sergei Eisenstein notes ""By the comination of two 'depictables' is achieved the representation of something that is graphically undepictable."" This is the intention of The Feminine. Looking at it, one enters a special world, a world in which meaning is revealed by the interplay of images, a world in which the arrangement of the images is as important as the images themselves. The women represented range from young to old, and art works date from the 13th century to the modern era. Among the artists included are photographers Jacques Henri Lartigue, Man Ray, and Clementina Hawarden; painters include Gustav Klimt, Joaquin Sorolla and Sandro Botticelli. A few pages of quotes have been included by the author to illuminate his work with words, where words are appropriate. Authors include Anais Nin, Colette, Laurie Anderson and Emily Dickinson.