Mary Weatherford: The Flaying of Marsyas

(Hardback)

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Mary Weatherford: The Flaying of Marsyas documents an exhibition of new paintings by Mary Weatherford, which were presented in 2022 at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, to coincide with the 59th Biennale di Venezia.

This catalog documents an exhibition of paintings from 202122 by Mary Weatherford, a daring practitioner of American abstraction and a leading painter of her generation. The series takes its immediate inspiration from Titians late painting, The Flaying of Marsyas (c. 157076), reflecting the artists enduring fascination with this work. Alluding to the Renaissance painters subdued palette, while paying tribute to the distinctive light of Venice, Weatherford uses Flashe paint and neon tubing to distill the earlier canvass affect. She responds to Titians composition by translating the violent character of its mythological theme into a format that, while more improvisational, also alludes to fate, hubris, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Francine Proses essay traces the history of depictions of the myth of Apollo and Marsyas in paintings, and places Weatherfords interpretation of the story in the context of contemporary life.