Abstract

GARDNER-HUGGETT, Joanna. La mascarada del vestir de Julia Thecla como un acto de resistencia. En-clav. pen [online]. 2008, vol.2, n.4, pp.131-153. ISSN 2594-1100.

This essay examines the paintings of the Chicago Surrealist Julia Thecla (18962003) who remains relatively unknown in art history. When discussed in art historical literature, scholars fail to address the connection between Thecla's public sartorial masquerades as ballerinas, little girls, cowgirls and birds and the whimsical scenes in her paintings. Instead, Thecla's depictions of young girls and small animals are merely understood as scenes of "make-believe" and overlook their roles as surrogates for the artist where they can create an alternative and autonomous order not subject to marginalization women artists experienced during this period. This article argues that by situating Thecla's female masquerade within the theoretical frameworks of Joan Riviere, Judith Butler and Linda Kintz, it becomes evident that Thecla's paintings from the 1930s through the 1940s serve as a mirror and document of her public performances of dress in order to circumvent patriarchal opposition to women's presence in both the critical and commercial realms of the art market.

Keywords : Chicago; Federal Art Project; Femme-enfant; Gender; Julia Thecla; Masquerade; Performance; Joan Riviere; Sartorial; Self-fashioning; Self-portraiture; Surrealism; Magic Realism; Women; Artists' Salon of Chicago.

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