Black Cat
acrylic and colored pencil on panel, 30x30
2009
Artist Margaret Munz-Losch
Courtesy of L. Ross Gallery
Black Cat (2009) invokes a range of complex dualities through powerful symbols. The girl's youthful innocence and her imagined bright future is met by portents of bad luck represented by the titular black cat. Her beauty is offset with allusions to her inescapable mortality by the flies composing her hair and the maggots comprising her flesh that symbolize death and decay.
Munz-Losch is intrigued with the challenge of making beautiful works built from elements that are often misunderstood, ignored, or even despised in the broader society. Whereas the beauty of the figure draws viewers' initial attention, the details of the work's composition take them on an unexpected journey upon closer examination. Munz-Losch states: "I perceive all of life as a vivid and wild ride, fraught with equal measures of love, sorrow, and wonder; all completely connected in an unspeakably beautiful universe of chaos."
