Beatrice Socoloff: Shopworn Angel Movie Art Museum
By Fred Camper
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A great painter Beatrice Socoloff was not. If these were not pictures of movie stars produced in quantity, most would hardly command a second glance at a neighborhood art fair. Her usual style is a watered-down postimpressionist cross between Cezanne and numerous anonymous bad painters, with an emphasis on the latter. One odd, posterlike image of Marlene Dietrich has a mild iconic power–the figure’s bluish skin contrasts eerily with her black suit and the red background–but for the most part these are far from original.
Socoloff’s portraits often humanize the stars in a way that movie posters and films did not. We see John Wayne in a familiar pose, peering into the distance from under his wide-brimmed hat. I’ve seen this somewhat puzzled look in his movies, but he seems more uncertain here. Socoloff gives Gary Cooper an interiority rare in his films: in her picture his face is tilted down as if momentarily diverted from looking forward, and his gaze is angled even further down and to the side. An arched eyebrow and the curve of his mouth also give him a pensive look.
This, then, is true outsider art, apparently uninfluenced by other artists or by mass media. The artist is instead trying to represent his direct observations–or memories of them–and in the process discovering how to paint. While this approach has resulted in plenty of bad art, in cases such as Morgan’s the artist’s inventions produce fascinatingly eccentric depictions. They also evidence the artist’s love for his subjects.
