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Lot Essay
Isidro Hernández Gutiérrez, curator of the Óscar Domínguez Collection, Tenerife, and the Comisión Consultiva de Expertos y en Defensa de la Obra de Óscar Domínguez (CEDOOC), confirmed the authenticity of this work.
In La mante religieuse Domínguez presents a monumentalised view of the praying mantis, who powerfully dominates the composition as she surveys the undulating landscape for her next target. Consistently associated with the dangerous female body, the creature is observed side-on, allowing a full view of the insect’s beautifully curvilinear form. With its elongated neck and voluptuous, sculptural limbs, the praying mantis proves equally attractive and menacing, as closer inspection reveals the sharply pointed ‘teeth’ of her legs, used to pin her hopeless victims in place. Representing eroticism and violence, the praying mantis proved a continuously fascinating subject for the Surrealists throughout the history of the movement, with the mythical character of this predatory insect being emphasised in the many paintings, drawings and poems in which it featured.
The insect occupied a liminal space in the imagination of these artists. Evoking primordial fears of the female ‘other,’ the insect became a threatening presence in these compositions, simultaneously referencing sexual desire and dramatic brutality. The violence of the species’ mating rituals, where the male insect is often decapitated and devoured by the female during coitus, enshrined the praying mantis as a symbol of the femme fatale figure in the insect world. Granted its name for the distinctive silhouette it adopts whilst waiting on its prey, the insect holds its legs together before its chest as if clasped in the spiritual act of prayer, and sways gently backwards and forwards like a leaf in the wind. The creature’s capacity to change and transform itself at will was equally intriguing to these artists, with its camouflage and mimetic techniques allowing it to fool its target into discounting the insect as an innocuous piece of foliage in the landscape. With this logic of the myth of the praying mantis as preying woman, the insect reveals an essential, underlying, violent aspect of female nature, hidden behind the surface of polite, refined society, waiting to burst forth at any moment.
In La mante religieuse Domínguez presents a monumentalised view of the praying mantis, who powerfully dominates the composition as she surveys the undulating landscape for her next target. Consistently associated with the dangerous female body, the creature is observed side-on, allowing a full view of the insect’s beautifully curvilinear form. With its elongated neck and voluptuous, sculptural limbs, the praying mantis proves equally attractive and menacing, as closer inspection reveals the sharply pointed ‘teeth’ of her legs, used to pin her hopeless victims in place. Representing eroticism and violence, the praying mantis proved a continuously fascinating subject for the Surrealists throughout the history of the movement, with the mythical character of this predatory insect being emphasised in the many paintings, drawings and poems in which it featured.
The insect occupied a liminal space in the imagination of these artists. Evoking primordial fears of the female ‘other,’ the insect became a threatening presence in these compositions, simultaneously referencing sexual desire and dramatic brutality. The violence of the species’ mating rituals, where the male insect is often decapitated and devoured by the female during coitus, enshrined the praying mantis as a symbol of the femme fatale figure in the insect world. Granted its name for the distinctive silhouette it adopts whilst waiting on its prey, the insect holds its legs together before its chest as if clasped in the spiritual act of prayer, and sways gently backwards and forwards like a leaf in the wind. The creature’s capacity to change and transform itself at will was equally intriguing to these artists, with its camouflage and mimetic techniques allowing it to fool its target into discounting the insect as an innocuous piece of foliage in the landscape. With this logic of the myth of the praying mantis as preying woman, the insect reveals an essential, underlying, violent aspect of female nature, hidden behind the surface of polite, refined society, waiting to burst forth at any moment.