1975s
Rasch, rasch, rasch, mein puppen warten......(Hurry,
Hurry, Hurry, My Dolls are Waiting
),
45x 57.5, is one of Finis largest
oils on canvas. Although many words have been
written about it, most of them have been misinterpretations
which served only to further their authors
own agenda. The painting is, in fact, a self-portrait.
Each of the elements of the work applies to various
aspects of Leonor. Viewing the figure on the far
right we can see her as Earth Mother.
This was a part of her that few people ever saw.
Those that were privileged enough to be the recipent
of her largess were indeed fortunate. At
one and the same time Fini was capable of great
swings of temperament; from unthinking cruelty
to equally unthinking generosity.
The intelligence, sexuality, innocence and curiosity
present in the figures are all parts of her persona.
The cross-dressed child harks back to her being
disguised as a boy to thwart kidnap attempts by
her father during her early childhood.
Nowhere
else is she so obviously a painter of women without
apology. There is no coyness or flirtation
in the sexually charged images as there was none
in Leonor. One of the more startling things about
Leonor is, that at a time when no other female
artist was able to rise to prominence without
being aligned with a male who was more famous,
Leonor succeeded; the sole example of this departure
from the norm.
It can be said that whereas Max Ernst had affairs
with every female artist that came through Paris
in the 1930s, it was Leonor who had the
affair with Ernst.
Rasch, rasch, rasch
often
appears as a two page spread in books and catalogs.
It has been central to every major retrospective
and museum exhibition that has taken place after
it was painted. Adding to its authentication is
a cat scratch on the back where one of her cats,
all of whom had free run of her home, slid
down the painting!
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