The girls in Dutch artist Hellen Van Meene's photographs are not the bubbly, self-absorbed tweens that litter the Explore page on Instagram. Rather, her subjects appear sophisticated beyond their years, emanating fragility and strength all at once. With her impeccable use of light, the artist creates uncanny images of forlorn youth and deadpan little girls that lure you in with an inexplicable force.
For her fourth solo exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery, The years shall run like rabbits, Van Meene’s compositions juxtapose the girls and their canine counterparts in the same frame as if estranged friends or angry lovers, drawing attention to the spatial and tangible psychological tension between the two. The presentation of dog and girl also elicits popular motifs from art history such as Diego Velasquezʼs Las Meninas or Thomas Gainsboroughʼs Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher, which draw on the dichotomies of companion and stranger and the natural boundaries that exist between human and animal.
The exhibition’s title derives from a lyric in W.H. Audenʼs elegiac poem, As I Walked Out One Evening, “The years shall run like rabbits / For in my arms I hold / The Flower of the Ages, / And the first love of the world.” The ballade bemoans the loss of youth and the passage of time; in Van Meene's portraits, girls in all stages of adolescence, from grade school to college are pictured. The younger girls frequently gaze at the camera some wide-eyed and upright, others look bored, dramatically slouching on a chair. Van Meene’s more mature subjects appear lost in deep thought, and seem suspicious of the camera’s lens, deliberately averting their eyes while projecting a guarded energy.
Through December 21, 2013 | Images courtesy of Yancey Richardson Gallery
YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
525 W 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
MAP
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Untitled #392, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 2 of 10
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Untitled #386, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 28 x 28 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
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Untitled #389, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10![]()
Untitled #390, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
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Untitled #391, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
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Untitled #393, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 1 of 10![]()
Untitled #395, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 2 of 10![]()
Untitled #398, 2012 From
For her fourth solo exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery, The years shall run like rabbits, Van Meene’s compositions juxtapose the girls and their canine counterparts in the same frame as if estranged friends or angry lovers, drawing attention to the spatial and tangible psychological tension between the two. The presentation of dog and girl also elicits popular motifs from art history such as Diego Velasquezʼs Las Meninas or Thomas Gainsboroughʼs Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher, which draw on the dichotomies of companion and stranger and the natural boundaries that exist between human and animal.
The exhibition’s title derives from a lyric in W.H. Audenʼs elegiac poem, As I Walked Out One Evening, “The years shall run like rabbits / For in my arms I hold / The Flower of the Ages, / And the first love of the world.” The ballade bemoans the loss of youth and the passage of time; in Van Meene's portraits, girls in all stages of adolescence, from grade school to college are pictured. The younger girls frequently gaze at the camera some wide-eyed and upright, others look bored, dramatically slouching on a chair. Van Meene’s more mature subjects appear lost in deep thought, and seem suspicious of the camera’s lens, deliberately averting their eyes while projecting a guarded energy.
Through December 21, 2013 | Images courtesy of Yancey Richardson Gallery
YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
525 W 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
MAP
Untitled #392, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 2 of 10
Untitled #386, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 28 x 28 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
Untitled #389, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
Untitled #390, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
Untitled #391, 2012 From the series Dogs and Girls . 16 x 16 inches, C-Print, Edition of 10
Untitled #393, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 1 of 10
Untitled #395, 2012, Chromogenic print, Framed: size: 16 x16 inches, Signed, titled, dated, numbered on label verso, Edition 2 of 10
Untitled #398, 2012 From