Natasha Walsh is a finalist in the 2025 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW with her work The Yellow Odalisque of Brunswick.
Atong Atem is a South Sudanese artist, born in Ethiopia and now based in Melbourne, who uses photography to explore postcolonialism and the African diaspora.
‘Her photographs, which often play with her own representation, have always captivated me,’ says Natasha Walsh. ‘When I asked her which work from art history she would like to reimagine together, she suggested Henri Matisse’s Yellow odalisque.
‘The odalisque genre allowed male artists to play with the erotic and exotic simultaneously through this idea of the Orient. European women, nude or partially nude, bathed in silks in Islamic harems with African servants. Both the women and their servants are slaves to the harem and the owner of the painting. In Yellow odalisque, Matisse had begun to modernise the genre with the female figure appearing in European clothing.
‘When I met Atong at her home in Brunswick, she was interested in replacing the Moorish patterns in Matisse’s work with African textiles, which are important in her own work.
‘In representing Atong, I wanted to celebrate her in a more naturalistic style than Matisse used, while still simplifying colour and line to maintain the connection to the original we were reimagining.’
Artwork:
Sitter: Atong Atem
Reference: Henri Matisse, Yellow Odalisque (1937)
