Jim Shaw — The Ties That Bind
(c)Jim Shaw, 2022 - Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian, Los Angeles
“Raquel Welch appears in Myra Breckenridge (1970), with Mae West and John Huston. In the film, Myron Breckenridge is reported to have died but leaves town, gets a sex change, and becomes 'Myra.' Myra claims to be his widow and comes back to claim Myron’s will and half of his uncle’s acting school in Hollywood. It’s a compelling book by Gore Vidal.”
(From: [Amadour] In Conversation with Artist Jim Shaw, www.riotmaterial.com)
Jim Shaw takes the title of the work – and its background featuring the Century Plaza Towers in Los Angeles – from the album Going for the One by British rock group Yes. The central figure in the painting is actress Raquel Welch who plays Myra Breckenridge in the 1970 film adaptation of Gore Vidal's book of the same name: Myra Breckinridge. The comedy fitted in with the strategy of film studio 20th Century-Fox (today 20th Century Studios) during those years, namely to conquer the silver screen with 'sex goddesses'. In 1963, this included Elisabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, here reflected in a skyscraper. With this role, Welch herself wanted to prove that she was more than an 'it girl'. However, the film was a flop with both critics and the general public. In Going for the One, Shaw has Welsh take the form of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction and rebirth, who towers over the iconic 20th Century-Fox logo. Welsh was Hollywood's sex symbol in the 1960s and 1970s, succeeding Marilyn Monroe (who, when speaking about the corrupt patriarchy of Hollywood and how women were treated there, regularly shattered the myth). After a number of lawsuits against her production company, Welsh's acting career was all but over from the 1980s onwards. She then became an active business woman with, among other things, a successful wig company.