Fêtes and Folly: Bikini Figure

Bikini Figures
Bikini Figure, Wayne Thiebaud, 1966
By REID GUEMMER

Spring break is approaching and like many you are headed south to warmer weather. Winter and the stress of third quarter have left you hardly any time to overthink the usual pre-spring break festivities. You’ve neglected to self-tan your fluorescently-white skin and your usual attempt at a juice cleanse. You’re left with one last chance to redeem yourself this spring break: finding the perfect swimsuit.

Frantically you scroll through pages and pages of swimsuits online. After selecting a few, and might I say fairly mediocre ones, you reach the checkout. Although suddenly realize the delivery date would be two days after your departure to Cabo, and you are not about to pay $39.99 for express shipping. Your next move is to head to the mall.

After driving the 30 minutes it takes to get to the burbs of Oak Park, you’ve arrived at a crowd favorite, Nordstroms. You push through the mobs of frantic shoppers and ride the escalator up to the picked over swimsuit section. The once overly-exciting experience of shopping now seems like a miserable task. Finally you decide the burden of swimsuit shopping is too much, and decide to borrow your mother’s vintage high wasted bikini. 

  • 7:00 AM

Not Your Average Female Portrait - Supine Woman

Lily Johnston
Not Your Average Female Portrait
Ways in which you wouldn't normally view a woman
Curated by Lily Johnston
Wayne Thiebaud, Supine Woman, 1963

If you type "supine woman" into the google search bar, this won't be the first image to pop up, unfortunately. On the border of modern and contemporary art, Thiebaud's Supine Woman evokes an uncomfortable feeling to walk away from the painting. From a distance, I thought this was an exhibit of a woman through a window lying on her back. But up close, it is just an extraordinary painting.

It is also extraordinarily sexual. Just as before in Young Woman on the Bank of the Seine, the subject's legs lay slightly ajar. At first it just seems like a normal woman staring innocently at the clouds. Well, while that may be, her skirt also sits just above the knee, her legs open, and most importantly, she lies passively. However, when exploring the definition of Supine, it claims it means "displaying no interest or animation." Now this can go two ways. One) Men would be outraged because this painting may provoke, but yet she has no interest. Two) She has physically no animation on her face, and as she fell, her body happened to contort this way. I tend to choose the first option, however, for its comedic qualities.

This seems like your average passive female painting waiting for the man to come, but her facial expression and muscles complete devoid of movement or emotion seem shocking. Even though this is a preferred position, the passiveness completely takes away from that.

  • 7:00 AM