File:Olive Ayhens Love in the Water 1980.jpg

Painting by Olive Ayhens, Love in the Water (watercolor, 22" x 31", 1980). The image illustrates a key early body of work in Olive Ayhens's career beginning in the 1970s, when she produced figurative watercolors and oils that critics likened to the work of Kandinsky and Miró and called "landscapes of the interior." They often consisted of brightly painted, intricate compositions playing on variations of aboriginal human, natural and fantasy forms stylized into tapestry-like patterns or(as in this work) surrounded by seas of organic and decorative elements that suggested instability and the power of greater forces in the world. This work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications and acquired by major museums.

Artist Olive Ayhens. Copyright held by the artist.

Olive Ayhens

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key early body of work in Olive Ayhens's career beginning in the 1970s: her figurative watercolors and oils, which critics compared to the work of Kandinsky and Miró in terms of their use of color and organic forms to suggest emotional states. They further described these brightly painted, intricate compositions, which played on variations of aboriginal human, natural and fantasy forms stylized into tapestry-like patterns, as energetically expressive, lyrical "psychic explorations" with personal narratives exploring female sexuality and evoking the universal, ritualistic and archetypal. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this early, foundational body of work, which brought Ayhens early recognition through exhibitions, coverage by major critics and publications and museum acquisitions. Ayhens's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Olive Ayhens, and the work no longer is viewable, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.