My process begins with online image searches using key words traditionally used to depict women in states of objectification that are found in our culture and throughout the art historical canon. It is very important to me that the images I use represent what our current culture is searching for and seeing. With these multiple found images I construct a “maquette” of one female figure which becomes my source for each painting. I then create works on paper prior to beginning the final oil painting. These studies help me answer questions about color use, art historical references, abstraction in relation to representation and most importantly, whether my new “hybrid woman” no longer exists as an object, but has metamorphosed into a subject. – Christiane Lyons
The collaged bodies in Louise: Arrangement in Radiant Lemon and Bluish Parma slowly become more apparent as the viewer moves away from the high contrast of the woman’s face towards the body, where a lavish diamond necklace floats off of the nude chest, further interrupted by a red sequined gown and a feathery white shoulder. Lyons includes three arms, one for each gown, including the yellow dragon-print dress that runs the length of the figure and across the bent knee of the red dress. The central yellow gown is based on Tom Ford’s creation for Yves Saint Laurent in 2004 that was prominently featured in the Metropolitan Museum’s China: Through the Looking Glass in 2015. At UCLA, Lyons worked with John Baldessari and Elizabeth Peyton who shaped her conceptual approach to figurative painting. She lives and works in San Francisco, and her paintings have been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including in the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth’s 2022 exhibition, Women Painting Women.