In a way, the painting is a simple stage, artfully composed, for playing
out forms of resistance.
- 3. Temperament
- The theme of flattening/recession or compression/expansion of the picture
space is signified by, and encapsulated in, the spatial disposition of the
woman (in the wicker chair) herself. Thus setting up what I would call a
temperamental tension, expressed mainly as an ambiguity between
restlessness and repose. This, too, is central to the underlying structure of the
painting. The implication of movement, a dancing lilting lyricism,
intertwines with stasis and calm. The girl seems to be not only sitting, but
also standing (if not doing a jig). She is at once upright and reclining. We perceive her one moment as tilted forward,
standing on her right leg, and the next moment as sitting and leaning back
deep into the chair. You might
say she suggests a counterbalancing subtext, complementary to the
suggestions of the painting's title. And one that functions as a kind of
subordinate shadow reading. For, as I see it, she is as much "Girl standing
in front of wicker chair" as she is "Girl in wicker chair." She oscillates
between potential and kinetic energy . . . and seems therefore both alert/ready
and also laid back/relaxed. Again, this phenomenon underscores the
tension-beneath-calm properties—the dynamic/static drama—that
infuses the painting.