Faun Roberts would have been amused witnessing the gradual legislative legitimization of the homosexual lifestyle. To her the words 'gay' and 'marriage' were oxymoronic. But such is the hum of time.
To Roberts, life was meant to be led fiercely and fast. An uncompromising sybarite, the world of the senses was an ants nest of accreting pleasures. What Faun Roberts loved most, even more than making art, were beautiful, sexy women.
 |
| Sospiro, oil on canvas, 92 x 40 inches. Faun Roberts, 1929 |
I strongly feel that had Roberts not crammed herself so deeply within the furrows of her sexuality, had she not indulged herself so wantonly in her erotic appetites she might have competed more credibly with her contemporaries Braque, Derain, the Delaunays and Picasso. She was severely stymied by her subject matter. As beautiful and as elegantly profane as her paintings from the 20's are, one is left with the impression that she never managed to deliver upon her promise.
It was Gertrude Stein herself who described Roberts as one "chained to the islands of the inner-thigh," and I too think a dose of the Diotima might have served her well. I suppose it's another dazzling case of historical 'what-if.'
It was Gertrude Stein herself who described Roberts as one "chained to the islands of the inner-thigh," and I too think a dose of the Diotima might have served her well. I suppose it's another dazzling case of historical 'what-if.'
