Those who admire Flack's work will approve of this absorbing look at a painter and sculptor who rejects passivity and celebrates femininity through bold 20th-century goddess imagery. Gouma-Peterson, an art historian at the College of Woostercq;actual name of the school in Ohio, has brought together seven essays devoted to various periods of Flack's career. Boston University art historian Patricia Hills discusses Flack's 1960s news images ( Kennedy Motorcade ) and portraiture ( Farb Family Portrait ); the late art historian Lawrence Alloway comments on her photorealistic images of kitschy mater dolorosa figures, ripe fruit, glistening edibles and personal objects; Yale curator Susan P. Casteras analyzes Flack's shift to sculpture during the '80s and the "emergence of an all-female pantheon" of deities based on 19th-century art; and Gouma-Peterson reflects on Flack's self-portraits, her abiding themes of fate, fortune, healing and spirituality, and her creation of Rock Hill Gateway , a series of four nearly identical golden goddesses that now overlook a South Carolina intersection. Some 130 illustrations, 65 in color, illuminate the text, ably showcasing Flack's authoritative work in various media.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.