Redefining self-representation: Julia Thecla's Full Moon (1945)

Abstract

Countering previous psycho-biographical readings of Julia Thecla's (1896-1973) Full Moon (1945), and the politics of self-representation and female self-portraits more broadly, it is argued here that Thecla's embrace of Surrealist strategies employed in this painting, such as female masquerade, are a means to address the intersecting and interdependent realms of both public and private that contributed to her identity as a professional artist, as well as pointing to the gendered practices of the art world in the post World War II era of the United States. Overall, the artist's gendered performance in Full Moon is framed as an act of non-verbal resistance, which becomes as important as Thecla's own collective work with the Women Artists' Salon of Chicago formed to promote visibility of women artists from 1937 to the early 1950s. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.