Livin’ in a World of Fools, part 2

Location

Country: Other
City: other locations UK

Inside an uninhabited room, what appears to be a large tree – perhaps a Christmas tree – stands in front of a door on top of a piece of furniture. Glimpses of ornate decoration on the high ceiling hint at the space’s faded grandeur. There is a strange sense of queasiness created by the narrow range of colours in this painting and the almost ghost-like forms of furniture.

Livin’ In a World of Fools part 2 by Eleanor Moreton belongs to a body of work in which the artist explored some of the myths surrounding the Habsburg Empire (1867–1918). In particular, she was drawn to the floral and folk paintings by the Viennese artist, Ferdinand Waldmüller (1793–1865) which she read as promoting a fantasy of the ideal home. In her own work, Moreton has described how she wants to disrupt a sense of cosiness in her domestic spaces. With a deliberate nod to the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, she acknowledges the contrasting nature of a ‘home’ which can be both refuge and a place of enclosure:

There is this ambivalence all the time because I long for the homely and all those kind of things and at the same time struggle to be free...

Places

Subjects

abstract, domestic interior

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Eleanor Moreton (1956 - )

Title

Livin’ in a World of Fools, part 2

Date

2011

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 45.00 cm, width: 35.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, March 2011

Inscription

verso on foldback, t: E. Moreton 2011 ; b: LIVIN' IN A WORLD OF FOOLS, PT 2

Provenance

Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool

GAC number

18390