There is nothing banal or indecent about this female nude. However, its title in Danish sounds a little misnormer if you consider the sacred nature and function of the human body. Maybe, the title has an ironical twang suggesting that the body is food for the body (”Eat me flower”).
The juxtaposition of this blooming nude and the beautiful blossoms creates a subtle narrative pattern in this work by Arne P. Salomonsen, a renowned artist from Scandinavia. That this woman is not coquettish nor one from the sin street is evident from the bashful expression on her face: God made her symmetrical body in the likeness of beautiful blossoms. ( The original title has an homophonic echo of ’blossom’ in ’blomst!) Her image evokes a sense of admiration and reverence, rather than an erotic desire.
She is ready to be entered into: the most human and most divine of acts, promising exstasy and life-continuum. Her cascading hair, her residual delicate, orange garment,- removed from their usual place- and the stalked blossoms rising upwards paint to an upsurge within herself and her mate. The deep red of two of the blossoms and the red as well as the dark blackish grey of the background spell out the indefinable mystique of what is yet to begin. The stalks touching and entwining her body and legs speak of the touch-tales of the foreplay. Her reclining head, up-raised arms, beautiful shapely breasts, gently curving waist and legs – all direct our attention to her exquisite body meant to be adored in variety of ways.
Arne Pjedsted Salomonsen deserves much applause for this classical female nude, which couldn’t have been created without a prolonged and profound contemplation of beauty.
(June 14,2001) – Mukund R. Dave (India)