Oil on canvas
Alison Watt
Flexion is one of a series of paintings made in 2002-3 that were exhibited at the Ingleby Gallery during the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival. This exquisitely painted, seemingly abstract, exploration of form relates to Watt's earlier work - suggestive, sensual paintings of the body and of fabric and drapery - and like these, hints at a human presence or absence.
The exploration of form in the painting relates to the artist’s interest in the human figure, particularly the female nude. The artist has acknowledged the work of 19th century French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres as an inspiration and in particular his handling of the drapery that surrounds the female form in many of his paintings. This work has both spiritual and sensual qualities and explores both the absence of the figure, but also the presence of the human body, conveying a sense of the traces left by the body on surrounding fabric.
The definition of the term ‘flexion’, the title of this work, is ‘the act of bending a limb, especially a joint between the bones of a limb so that the angle between them is decreased’ and also ‘deviation from a normal or straight course’.