+ 33 - 47 | § ¶rosy fingered dawn
Rosy fingered dawn at Louse point (1963)
To anyone not familiar with art history, the above title may be taken to mean that: ‘Rosy fingered Dawn at Lou’s Point’ , also known as Joe’s Diner, Burger Bar or Seven Eleven. Where the stunning suburb naughty Rosy intimately harassed her sweet innocent neighbour girl Dawn behind Joe’s establishment. The act obviously having taken place in 1963. The accusation may even have been mouthed at the camera by a Jerry Springer spoof, with Rose and Dawn, in their mid fourties by now, clawing at each other in the background.
The less perfidious among us may have read it in a different manner: seeing, with Casper David Friedrich in mind, a melancholy Dawn with pink hands clasped to her face balancing on the edge of the abyss known as Louse Point.
The truth of course is that ‘Rosy fingered dawn at Louse Point’ is a Willem de Kooning painting -based on a view from his Long Island studio- whose stunning beauty eludes me as it is an ABSTRACT painting! Abstract expressionist to be precise, and having been made in 1963, legitimate within the timeline of art historical development. It is one of the few, and arguably the last Modernist painting with meaning, in that its beauty lies within itself without the use of depiction. It is what it is, and it is frustratingly stunning. It is to me like the peacocks tail or the human eye to Darwin.