Zara Muse British , b. 1970
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Untitled III is a large-format female portrait in profile, acrylic on dibond (an aluminium composite panel), 100 x 100 cm. The figure stands against a warm yellow ground that softens to apricot behind the face, her eyes lowered rather than closed, lips slightly parted. Where most of Muse's portraits hold their subjects in a state of inward stillness, this figure feels caught mid-thought, present and quietly alert.
The hair is the most complex passage in the painting. Black at its core, it carries fragments of coral, red, blue, orange and turquoise scattered through it in distinct marks that loosen and break apart toward the right edge of the canvas, where the paint thins to almost nothing over bare dibond. The face and the teal garment below are handled with more restraint. The contrast is deliberate: a still centre and an unravelling edge, the whole painting held in productive tension between the two.
This work has been sold. To enquire about similar available works by Zara Muse, contact Eclectic Gallery, Fitzrovia, London.
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