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Lot Essay
"Contrary to the wisdom of the time, I believed that it was possible to paint a spatial illusion without violating the fact of the picture surface. I painted a small series of canvases that included a narrow shelf as a notional floor on which the painted legs could stand. Adding a shelf to the canvas created a paradox. It contributed to the illusion of depth implied by the painted image, yet underscored the fact of the canvas as a flat object. Hence the title!"
(Interview with the artist, March 2011).
With its tantalising slender ankle and elongated legs covered in sheer silk stockings and perched high upon a pair of shiny stilettoes, Allen Jones's A Step in the Right Direction offers an evocative combination of colour, form and female sexuality. Like his American counterparts Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann, Allen's depiction of the female form is produced without reference to the model's identity. Faceless, and therefore unknown, the figure becomes mysterious, the subject of desire. The black and white tiles on which she stands evoke a domestic setting; a kitchen perhaps, the floor covered with the chessboard checks of the 1960s linoleum. This domesticity contrasts sharply with the view of the figure within it, a tradition which is present in much early Pop Art, including Richard Hamilton's iconic Just what is it about today's homes that make them so different, so appealing?, Roy Lichtenstein's Step-on Can with Leg and the bedrooms and interiors of Tom Wesselmann's Great American Nude series. In addition, A Step in the Right Direction is one of a few rare works in which Jones introduces a third-dimension into the canvas in the form of a 'shelf' that runs along the length of the lower edge. Like Wesselmann, who notably used plastic flowers and a refrigerator door in Still Life #30, Jones is reaching out to claim the unoccupied space between the canvas and the viewer. This draws the viewer into the composition and actively engages them in the process of decoding the visuals laid out before them; a practice which is so important to the artist's working process.
The image of the female leg has become an important motif in Jones's work because it satisfies all the requirements for the forceful and immediate paintings that he seeks to make. An instantly recognizable symbol of human sexuality, it implies the existence of a person without imposing the rigid identification of an actual person, as the curator Marco Livingstone noted, "Jones is not interested in painting and entire figure at this level of precision and detail, since this would disperse ones attention too haphazardly over the surface and make the painting a mere illustration of something that already exists. The fragment of the leg which is life-sized and which rests on the lower edge of the canvas as if walking on the floor establishes a physical relationship with the viewerit provides the sensation of human presence" ( M. Livingstone, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, New York, 1979, p. 78).
Allen Jones regards the process of making and viewing his art as a balancing act between the visual and the conceptual, and he considers the retinal and the conceptual to be related rather than antagonistic forces. A Step in the Right Direction investigates the relationship between the illusion of depth in two dimensional paintings, as Jones explained, "Contrary to the wisdom of the time, I believed that it was possible to paint a spatial illusion without violating the fact of the picture surface. I painted a small series of canvases that included a narrow shelf as a notional floor on which the painted legs could stand. Adding a shelf to the canvas created a paradox. It contributed to the illusion of depth implied by the painted image, yet underscored the fact of the canvas as a flat object. Hence the title!" (Interview with the artist, March 2011). As this works demonstrates, the strong visual aesthetic can be combined with a conceptual nature to produce a work of intense intrigue. As Jones himself admits, the erotic nature of his paintings is not the most important element in his work. It is used only as a device to seduce the viewer into a closer examination of what lies beyond the visual, "In becoming aware of the image as paint, however, the viewer must distance himself from this apparent subject and instead focus his attention on the aesthetic considerations that are the true objects of the artist's concern" ( M. Livingstone, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, New York, 1979, p. 83). SJ
(Interview with the artist, March 2011).
With its tantalising slender ankle and elongated legs covered in sheer silk stockings and perched high upon a pair of shiny stilettoes, Allen Jones's A Step in the Right Direction offers an evocative combination of colour, form and female sexuality. Like his American counterparts Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann, Allen's depiction of the female form is produced without reference to the model's identity. Faceless, and therefore unknown, the figure becomes mysterious, the subject of desire. The black and white tiles on which she stands evoke a domestic setting; a kitchen perhaps, the floor covered with the chessboard checks of the 1960s linoleum. This domesticity contrasts sharply with the view of the figure within it, a tradition which is present in much early Pop Art, including Richard Hamilton's iconic Just what is it about today's homes that make them so different, so appealing?, Roy Lichtenstein's Step-on Can with Leg and the bedrooms and interiors of Tom Wesselmann's Great American Nude series. In addition, A Step in the Right Direction is one of a few rare works in which Jones introduces a third-dimension into the canvas in the form of a 'shelf' that runs along the length of the lower edge. Like Wesselmann, who notably used plastic flowers and a refrigerator door in Still Life #30, Jones is reaching out to claim the unoccupied space between the canvas and the viewer. This draws the viewer into the composition and actively engages them in the process of decoding the visuals laid out before them; a practice which is so important to the artist's working process.
The image of the female leg has become an important motif in Jones's work because it satisfies all the requirements for the forceful and immediate paintings that he seeks to make. An instantly recognizable symbol of human sexuality, it implies the existence of a person without imposing the rigid identification of an actual person, as the curator Marco Livingstone noted, "Jones is not interested in painting and entire figure at this level of precision and detail, since this would disperse ones attention too haphazardly over the surface and make the painting a mere illustration of something that already exists. The fragment of the leg which is life-sized and which rests on the lower edge of the canvas as if walking on the floor establishes a physical relationship with the viewerit provides the sensation of human presence" ( M. Livingstone, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, New York, 1979, p. 78).
Allen Jones regards the process of making and viewing his art as a balancing act between the visual and the conceptual, and he considers the retinal and the conceptual to be related rather than antagonistic forces. A Step in the Right Direction investigates the relationship between the illusion of depth in two dimensional paintings, as Jones explained, "Contrary to the wisdom of the time, I believed that it was possible to paint a spatial illusion without violating the fact of the picture surface. I painted a small series of canvases that included a narrow shelf as a notional floor on which the painted legs could stand. Adding a shelf to the canvas created a paradox. It contributed to the illusion of depth implied by the painted image, yet underscored the fact of the canvas as a flat object. Hence the title!" (Interview with the artist, March 2011). As this works demonstrates, the strong visual aesthetic can be combined with a conceptual nature to produce a work of intense intrigue. As Jones himself admits, the erotic nature of his paintings is not the most important element in his work. It is used only as a device to seduce the viewer into a closer examination of what lies beyond the visual, "In becoming aware of the image as paint, however, the viewer must distance himself from this apparent subject and instead focus his attention on the aesthetic considerations that are the true objects of the artist's concern" ( M. Livingstone, Allen Jones: Sheer Magic, New York, 1979, p. 83). SJ