The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
just the two of us
1982
(American, b. 1956)
Unframed: 187.9 x 198 cm (74 x 77 15/16 in.)
Dorothea Wright Hamilton Fund 2014.394
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
Both figures in this painting are based on greeting card images.Description
Emerging in the 1980s, Julia Wachtel became known for her paintings employing cartoon characters appropriated from sources as every day and relatable as greeting cards and magazines, deliberately commenting on our quickly evolving visual culture. One of Wachtel’s earliest paintings, Just the Two of Us shows two young women, one in an elaborate gown reading a letter and the other a school girl standing in front of the moon; both figures are based on images from greeting cards. That both of the female subjects are shown as desirable or sexualized is not a coincidence, speaking to the ways that representations of women have been formed by the appetites of men.- Julia Wachtel. Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH (October 11, 2014-January 4, 2015).The Cleveland Museum of Art (10/11/14 - 1/17/15); "Julia Wachtel"
- {{cite web|title=just the two of us|url=false|author=Julia Wachtel|year=1982|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.394