Big Bathers, Another Judgment
Date1984
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions90 × 114 in. (228.6 × 289.6 cm)
Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1986
Object number1986-35
On View
On viewBig Bathers, Another Judgment
Label TextKnown for combining expressive brushwork and color with pointed social commentary, Robert Colescott painted several canvases in 1984 based on two sources—Paul Cézanne’s bather paintings and the classical myth of the Judgment of Paris. Colescott includes the protagonist—the mortal, Paris—along with the prize—the golden apple—which was given to Aphrodite as the fairest goddess above Hera and Athena. In return, Paris was rewarded with the hand of Helen, and her abduction from Sparta launched the Trojan War. These works, like Colescott’s appropriations of European and American masterpieces in the mid 1970s, question stereotypes and notions of beauty.
