The title "Westchester Gauguin I" signals American artist Shirley Gorelick’s deliberate reworking of Gauguin’s grouped female figures in a modern Westchester setting, merging an art-historical reference with her own portrait series of suburban adolescents. Three young women (believed to be Wendy, Beth, and Dena Rakower) stand close together before dense, sun-struck greenery, their bodies arranged almost like a living frieze. Each has long, dark hair and a calm, self-possessed presence, yet each occupies the scene differently. At left, one faces outward with a direct, steady gaze, wrapped in a gold robe edged in white and her hands in front. The central figure stands taller and more frontal, wearing a cool gray-blue patterned robe that opens down the torso and her expression introspective. At right, a third woman turns her head downward and sideways, one arm lifted into her hair, her multicolored checked robe creating the most active pattern in the composition. Their medium-brown skin, dark eyes, and long hair contrast with the restless green foliage behind them. Gorelick’s brushwork is vigorous and textured, building strong shadows, warm flesh tones, and a tactile sense of cloth, hair, and leaves. The mood is quiet, serious, and psychologically charged rather than decorative. Gorelick’s painting feels less like fantasy and more like critique, re-grounding the image of women in contemporary presence and agency. Rather than turning her sitters into exotic types, she gives each woman weight, individuality, and interior life. Made in 1974, the work belongs to the moment when Gorelick was developing what she called a psychologically driven realism within the feminist art world of 1970s New York. Her women are sensual, but not passive; vulnerable in exposure, yet undeniably self-possessed. The trio format also anticipates her larger “Three Sisters” and “Three Graces” explorations, where relationship, repetition, and subtle difference matter as much as likeness.
"Westchester Gauguin I" by Shirley Gorelick (American) - Acrylic on canvas / 1974 - National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington DC) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #ShirleyGorelick #Gorelick #artText #1970sArt #BskyArt #WomenPaintingWomen #NMWA #NationalMuseumofWomenintheArts
