Ice Cream - Axell

Evelyn Axell

1964

Painting

Oil on Canvas

37 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches

This image of a woman licking an ice cream cone is a critique by Axell of the way that pop art had been used for objectification of women in the past. Here, the only parts of actual skin that we see are the woman’s hands and face, although the overall image presents an incredibly sexual tone, one of personal gratification. The woman here is in charge and sexually liberated, taking back sexuality for women and celebrating it. Axell strikingly creates a purposeful discomfort by displaying a sexual act in a way that isn’t objectifying the woman, confronting the objectification of women and the societal tendency to present a woman’s sexuality as passive.

Collection of Serge Goisse, Belgium

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© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Luke Beemer