AXELL’S PARADISE
Last works (1971-72) before she vanished
BROADWAY 1602 presents for the first time in the US a solo show by this outstanding woman artist.
The late paradise circle marks the height of Axell’s artistic achievements.
With the late series of works from 1971-72 shortly before her untimely death, Axell reaches a pivotal stage of her work. She realizes the ‘paradise’ circle situating her solitary females in a new setting, – her fantasy of a utopian landscape: close jungle landscapes with toxic vegetation, idyllic waterfalls and exotic animals, an “Eden ripped apart by shock waves from the world of men”. At the same time we find here an elegiac vision of nature untouched by environmental destruction becoming a hidden realm for the free enjoyment of female desire.
In “L’Herbe Folle” (1972) we see a woman taking a sunbath, her glasses (Axell’s signature round fashionable sun glasses and therefore likely a self portrait) dropped beside her. She seems to rest peacefully while the tropical forest framing her body becomes an all consuming protecting and threatening setting. Shortly after Axell dies in a car crash in Belgium.
See also Press topics for further reading on this exhibition.
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