Mexican artist Jose Dávila frequently quotes works by iconic 20th century artists as a means to critique and reflect on their meaning. In this work from 2016, Dávila uses famed Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s Blonde Waiting (1964) as a starting point, altering it by removing sections that depict the woman’s skin and hair. By deleting the female protagonist’s body, her identity (in part, the blondeness mentioned in the title) is obscured, shifting the personal, emotional tone of the work to unknown territory. The blank areas also leave a spatial void in the cartoon composition for which Lichtenstein is so well known. Dávila’s work has been shown at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; PS1, New York; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Camden Arts Centre, London; and Museo Jumex, Mexico City, among others. His work can be found in the public collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris; Collection Inhotim, Brumadinho; the Albright-Knox, Buffalo; and the Tate, London.
