Rowena Comrie

Rowena Comrie has lived and worked in Aberdeen for ten years. She trained at Reading University, where her sense for strong and vibrant colour was developed under the teaching of Terry Frost and John Maclean.

Since coming to Aberdeen Rowena has painted landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, portraits and even scenes from literary and mythological sources. This exhibition, however, focuses principally on the male nude, a subject which she interprets in a way more usually devoted to the female form. The figures are elegant, curvaceous and, because their is no special emphasis given to the facial features, somewhat depersonalised.

Rowena Comrie's work is also included in Naked - The Nude in Art currently on display in the Side Court.

Artist's statement:

In this exhibition I have reversed the traditional Fine Art treatment of the female model by male painters. I have treated the subject with reciprocal disregard for ideas, other than popularly perceived beauty and physical perfection.

This is taken further in the painting "10-3-1914", which is based on Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" (National Gallery, London). This well-known supine siren was slashed by the Suffragette Mary Richardson on that date She said;

"I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in history"

The Rokeby Venus represents the female nude as a beautiful object. My paintings represent the male nude as a beautiful object. This non-heroic, passive male gazes into a mirror reflecting an image which corresponds, in its inaccuracy, with a traditional view of the feminine.

The titles of the paintings carry significance in that they refer specifically to the stylistic language of female fashion - a language of women.

7th July 1998.