Applause
Artist
Ellen Phelan
(American, born 1943)
Date1986
MediumGouache on paper
DimensionsImage Size: 22 5/8 × 19 1/4 in. (57.5 × 48.9 cm)
Frame Size: 31 5/8 × 28 1/4 in. (80.3 × 71.8 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Credit LineGift of Susanne F. Hilberry Estate, 2021
Object numberUAC6843
DescriptionEllen Phelan is a Detroit artist who received her bachelor’s and Master of Fine Arts from Wayne State University in 1969 and 1971, respectively. She moved to New York in 1973 in hopes of finding an art community that would be more accepting of female artists than in Detroit at the time. Phelan has experimented with a variety of media and aesthetics throughout her career: from abstract paintings to black gouache landscape and figurative drawings. Her doll series, beginning in 1985, reflects her affinity for realism, an interest she has possessed since her days as a student. According to Richard Armstrong, Phelan’s doll series “symbolized a rich matrix of still life and portraiture possibilities” (Armstrong 12). These drawings take after Phelan’s childhood dolls, which she originally shipped to New York for her stepdaughter Ivy. Phelan explains that “when you play with dolls, they are animated by the projection of imagination” (Armstrong 13). Whoever projects onto dolls plays an integral role in the dolls’ behavior, or performance of behaviors. Rather than the projections of children, Phelan crafted her drawings through her own projections as a woman. In doing so, Phelan contemplates the “emotional relationships between men and women, mothers and daughters, gender definition and how it comes about, the female sense of the self” (Armstrong 13). Phelan proposes an alternative way of seeing and imagining dolls. She trades in a childlike view of dolls in exchange for one that expresses her “sense of sexual politics,” which in turn speaks to how our view of the world changes from childhood to adulthood (Henry 51).Applause (1985), one of the first gouache drawings in the series, presents one female and one male doll posing with outstretched arms. The female doll wears a dress, while the male doll wears a shirt and pants, adhering to heteronormative conventions. Their wide eyes and mouths suggest they are performing, perhaps singing a song. Phelan reveals that the singing dolls represent her fantasy of becoming a singer. While the facial expressions may have already been part of the dolls, it is likely that Phelan manipulated the arms to create theatrical gestures. The female and male doll’s performance are projections of humanity’s desire for validation and attention. Even though the need for validation may be associated with a female stereotype, Phelan asserts that this is a desire human beings can possess regardless of gender.
The dolls would likely have a lighthearted disposition had they been painted in vibrant colors. On the contrary, Phelan’s use of chiaroscuro with the gouache adds drama to the scene, once again demanding the viewer’s attention. The stark contrast between black and white as opposed to bright colors may convey the frustration human beings can develop as they enter adulthood: they see what the world may look like once the childlike wonder is gone and one becomes aware of real-world issues, as Phelan has. Although this is a figurative, still life work, the male doll’s shadow contains some abstraction. The shadow follows the general movement of the doll, but it does not align with the head or the torso shape. This detail suggests that Phelan has not completely abandoned her abstract influence from her early career. It may also illustrate that one’s projections of gender roles may appear distorted to others compared to their own projections.
Written by Angela Athnasios
Sources: "Ellen Phelan to Date" by Richard Armstrong from Ellen Phelan: From the Lives of Dolls, "Ellen Phelan:The Interpretation of Dolls" by Gerrit Henry
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