Lot 120: Elina Brotherus (Finnish, born 1972) Femme dans la Baignoire, 2003 70 x 87cm (27 9/16 x 34 1/4in).

Femme dans la Baignoire, 2003
Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminium. Signed, titled, dated and numbered '6/6' in ink on a label on reverse of mount. Number 6 from the sold out edition of 6. Framed.
70 x 87cm (27 9/16 x 34 1/4in).

'Femme dans la Baignoire' is taken from Elina Brotherus' 2000-2004 series The New Painting. While much of her early work dealt with subjective experiences, such as the presence and absence of love, this later series explores more formal issues. Inspired by a friend's provocative statement "Photography is the new painting", Brotherus set out to approach the same challenges that painters have long wrestled with - light, colour, composition, the projection of three dimensions in two - using a very contemporary means of expression: large format colour photography. In the series, Brotherus evades the problems that come with self-portraiture and internal examination to focus on the external human form. She is interested, here, not in psychology but in outward simplicity - in how the body as an object reacts to its surroundings and how it forms and reforms depending on the space into which it is placed.