Beauty Through Art
Art historian Katy Hessel traces how art has shaped, and been shaped by, our ideas of beauty across time.
Danielle Mckinney paints portraits of women (who she calls her ‘ladies’) alone, basking in blissful solitude. Free from the male gaze, and rendered with warmth and intimacy, Mckinney shows beauty as defined by women, for women. Defiant in their repose, they are often taking part in rituals of self-care – whether in the form of face masks, napping, luxuriating in a long bath, drinking tea or languishing naked on the sofa.
She gives precedence to the importance of rest: that all-important, age-old step in any beauty routine – getting your beauty sleep.
Danielle Mckinney, Calvary (2022) © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
Danielle Mckinney paints portraits of women (who she calls her ‘ladies’) alone, basking in blissful solitude. Free from the male gaze, and rendered with warmth and intimacy, Mckinney shows beauty as defined by women, for women. Defiant in their repose, they are often taking part in rituals of self-care – whether in the form of face masks, napping, luxuriating in a long bath, drinking tea or languishing naked on the sofa.
She gives precedence to the importance of rest: that all-important, age-old step in any beauty routine – getting your beauty sleep.
Danielle Mckinney, Calvary (2022) © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
1: Danielle Mckinney, Shut Eye (2023) © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. 2: Danielle Mckinney, Before they wake (2023) © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist and Marion Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
Danielle Mckinney, Mercy (2023) © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
