Romaine Brooks was an Italian-American artist/hottie/bisexual/pants-wearing bad-ass. She had a shitty childhood, married a gay guy, chopped her hair and then took up with many "special lady friends", including the writer Natalie Barney and some princess. She lived for a long time and went crazy. She was known mostly for some self portraits and paintings of androgynous women.
Her surreal works somehow managed to be both sublimely drab and vivid. Working in gray tones with an occasional slash of red, she created pieces full of shadows and haunted expressions lined with soot. Her more colorful pieces are dazzling, but equally weighty.
She had the nerve to include nude pieces (of chicks) in an exhibition, much to the dismay of judgmental pricks everywhere. This was in like, friggin' 1910. Can you imagine the clucks of disapproval, hairy eyeballs and nervous laughter incited back then? Christ.
I'm giving her a mere sliver of the props she deserves with my spotty/abysmal effort.. she doesn't seem to get adequate recognition for her work, which is a shame. You know the names of Picasso and Matisse, but why the hell not Brooks? Her work was totally killer.
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