Item Details:

LA CHUTE DE BABYLONE

after JANE GRAVEROL (1905-1984)

MID-CENTURY SURREALISM, 1967/2024

Oil & Collage on Canvas by Zina Umyn

Size: 22 x 26 in; 55.9 x 66 cm

Signed: unsigned

Known for her recurring theme exploring feminist surrealism, Graverol's painting here is faithful to the artist's unique brand.   Graverol, a compatriot and contemporary of Belgian surrealist, Rene Magritte, shares with him the common goal of creating the mysterious and the inexplicable, sometimes referred-to as magical realism which merged elements of realism with the fantastical, disturbing, mythological and dream-like.

In the present work, Graverol appropriates & incorporates a collaged perimeter of commercial product advertising on a masonry wall, justaposing its central painted image of a woman's silhouette, appearing out of the wall's negative space, and punctuated by a symbolic floral vagina target, all driving home the picture's message - "sex sells".

Sex was first used to sell products back in 1871. According to World Heritage Encyclopedia, the earliest form of using sex in advertising was by Pearl Tobacco. Their cigarette package displayed an image of a “naked maiden.” This was exceptionally provocative at the time, and sales immediately rose.  Over more than the 150 years intervening, advertising and product marketing has refined this practice to a fine art.

Private Collection, New York City