Pollice Verso, a Latin phrase meaning “with a turned thumb,” is the title of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s masterful work, depicting a gladiator duel in the heart of the Roman Coliseum. Gérôme, a renowned artist known for his historical narrative paintings, started this painting before 1869 but temporarily stopped working on it during the Franco-Prussian War. He would go on to finish the work in 1872.

Gérôme’s Pollice Verso is all about the power of gesture and high drama. In Ancient Rome, gladiatorial games were both a form of entertainment for the masses and a form of capital punishment. Gladiators were typically enslaved people, convicted criminals, or prisoners of war who were forced to train and become skilled fighters. In the foreground of Gérôme’s painting, we witness the ending of a gladiator duel, where the victorious gladiator has slayed two fellow fighters and has his foot on the throat of the last person alive. He looks up toward the crowd or perhaps the Roman emperor himself for permission to finish the fight and execute the fellow gladiator.

Perhaps to signal for mercy from the crowd and the emperor, the man on the ground gestures upward with two fingers, reminiscent of the same gesture that is often featured in Catholic iconography during the Byzantine and Renaissance periods. The crowd appears to be booing and putting their thumbs down.

While a modern read on this gesture suggests that a “thumbs down” was a signal that a defeated gladiator should be condemned to death (likely influenced by Ridley Scott’s feature film Gladiator), there are no historical records that confirm this. Because pollice verso simply means with “a turned thumb” (specifying neither up nor down), we do not have a clear answer.

What we do know, however, is that in Gérôme’s painting, we enter the scene during a moment of high suspense, when the emperor has not given a definitive signal either way. Will the defeated gladiator live or die? It is left to the viewer to complete the story for themself.

Gérôme showed a Pollice Verso at a private Salon in 1873, after which the painting was turned into a series of prints and would be used as a reference for his full-scale sculptural work The Gladiators (1873). The work was acquired by PhxArt in 1968 and has been a jewel of the collection and a favorite of visitors ever since.

Come see this masterwork of the PhxArt collection, on view now in our European + American galleries. Learn more at: https://phxart.org/exhibition/european-and-latin-american-art/

Image credit: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down)1872. Oil on canvas, Museum purchase.

Works cited: Spier, Christine (2010, August 6). Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down? Looking at Gérôme’s “Pollice Verso.” Getty. https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down-looking-at-geromes-pollice-verso/

Hoakley, (2018, July 26). Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 4. THE ECLECTIC LIGHT COMPANY. https://eclecticlight.co/2018/07/26/too-real-the-narrative-paintings-of-jean-leon-gerome-4/

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“I made Neurokin as a reminder of living in community. It has been so validating to find people who can relate to being neurodivergent in an ableist world.” – Michelle Dawn, Textile Artist

Safety Blankets: Discourse on Neurodivergence aims to spark connections and discourse and challenge the meaning of neurodivergence. The installation, presented in PhxArt’s administration building, showcases quilt and textile works by 15 artists from Arizona and across the U.S. who depict their lives and experiences as neurodivergent people. Works include 10 intentional universal design elements for neurodivergent and disabled people, and their fabrics evoke an expanded understanding of what occurs within their minds and bodies.

Safety Blankets is organized by Charissa Lucille, an artist and arts administrator based in Phoenix, whose work includes quilting, self-published zines, and exploring genetics, access needs, and communication styles related to their neurodivergence through their personal practice. This installation is made possible in part by the City of Phoenix’s New Artist to Work Grant.

Safety Blankets is accompanied by an audio component, available via in-gallery QR codes.

Discover more about this innovative project and its forthcoming catalogue (May 2024), visit charissalucille.com and follow (@charissalucille) (@safetyblankets) on Instagram.

Featured Artists in the Installation:

Charissa Lucille
Sheena Cly Wahid
Yolie Contreras
Alice Costas
Phoenix Alvarado
Alistair Malone
Layla Nieves
Ari Rendon
Caroline Wilson
Aaron Davis
Michelle Dawn
Chris Leon Armarillas
Maira McDermott
Janelle Novotny
vivid schisms

Don’t miss out on seeing Safety Blankets: Discourse on Neurodivergence, on view in the Community Art Gallery located in PhxArt’s admin building, now through June 1, 2024.

Image credits: Michelle Dawn (They/She) Concurrence, 2023 Textile quadriptych; Neurokin, 2023 Woven textile, Photo Credit: Michelle Dawn. ⁠

Safety Blankets: Discourse on Neurodivergence

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Installation view of Art of the Americas + Europe, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum.

Before photography and social media, the 18th century aristocracy commissioned artists to create large-scale portraits to symbolize their power in society. Take, for example, this portrait of Madame Adélaïde, daughter of King Louis XV and aunt of King Louis XVI, who ranked second only to Queen Marie Antoinette in the French Royal Court.

One of the most magnetic larger-than-life portraits in the PhxArt Collection is that of Madame Adélaïde. Madame Adélaïde was a princess—the daughter of King Louis XV and aunt to King Louis XVI—and ranked second only to Queen Marie Antoinette in the French Royal Court.

This ambitious portrait from the #PhxArtCollection was created by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, who was among a shortlist of woman court painters. Commissioned before the French Revolution, the portrait showcases Adélaïde’s complex loyalty to the French monarchy through elaborate, symbolic displays of fashion and decor. Next to the portrait of Madame Adélaïde in our Art of the Americas + Europe galleries hangs an image of her sister, Madame Victorie, painted by Marie Antoinette’s official portraitist—and Labille-Guiard’s rumored rival—Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Both Madame Victorie and Madame Adélaïde fled France during the French Revolution.

Labille-Guiard created several renditions of Madame Adélaïde’s portrait, showcasing the princess’ complex loyalty to the French monarchy through elaborate, symbolic displays of fashion and decor. She is depicted holding a porte-crayon (an instrument designed to hold a stick of chalk) in her right hand, and a rag in her left, which rests on the elaborate easel that she is working on. The artwork on her easel portrays her late parents and brother, with her pose illustrating that she, too, is an artist in her own right. The painting is a visual masterpiece. Viewers may feel like they can step inside the work—a time capsule from a momentous time in French history. Madame Adelaide (c. 1787) is on view in the Art of the Americas + Europe galleries. Learn more about our exhibitions at: https://phxart.org/art/exhibitions/

Image credits: Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Madame Adelaide, c. 1787. Oil on canvas. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds provided by an anonymous New York foundation. Installation views of Art of the Americas + Europe, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum.
Works cited: Chudnow, India. “1787 – ADÉLAÏDE LABILLE-GUIARD, MADAME ADÉLAÏDE.” Fashion History Timeline. 7 January 2023, https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1787-labille-guiard-adelaide/.
N/A. “Portrait of Madame Adelaide.” Speed Art Museum. 2024, https://www.speedmuseum.org/collections/portrait-of-madame-adelaide/.

The Collection: European and Latin American Art

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Laura Aguilar, Motion #59, 1999. Gelatin silver print. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016.

“It was toward the end of my college career that I was introduced to the work of Laura Aguilar, and it felt like home.”

Navigating the world of fine art photography as a queer, brown, fat, masculine-presenting woman during my undergraduate studies was an isolating journey. Course after course, I searched for some common ground in the works of the great masters of photography, but I never truly saw myself in them, leading to my first creative heartbreak. Personally, it was a time of struggle and growth in which I was coming to terms with my own identity and its influence on my creative pursuits. What I did see in my history of photography books was an extensive archive of Eurocentric, cisgender perspectives and a set of rigid aesthetic ideals, which were then reaffirmed by my own experience.    

Laura Aguilar was born in San Gabriel, California, in 1959 to a second-generation Mexican American father and a mother of Irish American, Mexican American, and Californio native descent. Aguilar suffered from auditory dyslexia, which was undiagnosed until her mid-20s, and although this learning disability hindered her ability to communicate with the world, it empowered her to find other forms of expression, ultimately leading to the beginning of her photographic journey.

As a Chicana lesbian who was large-bodied and lived with a learning disability, Aguilar turned the lens on herself to challenge the standards of able-bodied, heteronormative ideals often seen in traditional fine-art depictions of the human form. Her resulting body of work stands as a tender yet powerful testament to her journey of self-acceptance and liberation—a true manifestation of radical softness.

The term ‘radical softness’ was popularized in 2015 by contemporary artist and poet Lora Mathis, but the concept itself emerged from various social and artistic movements, particularly within BIPOC¹, feminist, and LGBTQIA2S+² communities. Radical softness challenges traditional ideas of strength, toughness, and emotional suppression that are often associated with conventional notions of masculinity, instead promoting the idea that vulnerability, empathy, and emotional expression can be powerful forms of resistance and activism. Radical softness encourages individuals to embrace and express their emotions, to reject the pressure to conform to rigid gender roles, and to create spaces where sensitivity, compassion, and kindness are valued.

Offering an honest exploration of body and identity, Aguilar’s work brings to light the often-silenced narratives of marginalized communities and presents a visual ode to Chicanx queer bodies. Aguilar’s radical softness taught me that true liberation lies in embracing the full spectrum of our identities and celebrating the diversity that makes us human. It was her radical softness that empowered me to fall in love, once again, with photography, and with myself.

Although Aguilar continued to endure personal hardships and the indifference of the broader art world toward her work for most of her life, she persisted in defying conventions, eventually turning to the landscape, which remained a source of spiritual sustenance for her until her passing in 2018. In returning to the natural world, she created some of her most notable works, many of which are on view in Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature.

As we continue to individually and collectively navigate an evolving world, Laura Aguilar’s legacy remains a guiding light, urging us to embark on our own journeys of self-discovery and radical revolution.

¹The acronym “BIPOC” stands for “Black, Indigenous, and people of color.” The term places Black and Indigenous peoples outside of the larger “people of color” designation to recognize that not all people of color experience equal levels of racial discrimination and injustice.

²The acronym “LGBTQIA2S+” stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and/or gender expansive, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Two-Spirit.”  “Two-Spirit” is a term specific to Indigenous communities, referring to a distinct, alternative gender identity that is neither man nor woman and encompasses various spiritual and social roles within a given tribe. Each tribal nation has a specific term and way of defining the two-spirit identity. The use of the “+” acknowledges that there are a multiplicity of gender identities and sexual orientations beyond these specific designations and that identities are constantly changing and evolving to better represent the full breadth of humanity.

Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature

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Sama Alshaibi

For this episode, we spoke with Sama Alshaibi, the 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award recipient. Alshaibi’s photographic imagery, video, and installation, on view in her exhibition Generation After Generation through May 14, 2023, interrogates the social codes found in images, texts, and artifacts to question the construction of history and its impact on a speculative future.

Chris Vena

For this episode, we spoke with Chris Vena, one of the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients. Vena’s painting series, on view in the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards exhibition through May 14, 2023, discusses how his recent body of work examines the loneliness and unease of life experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gloria Martinez-Granados

For this episode, we spoke with Gloria Martinez-Granados, one of the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients. Martinez-Granados’ work The Uncertainty of Higher Education, on view in the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards exhibition through May 14, 2023, reflects on her own experience growing up and living as an undocumented immigrant through digitally manipulated personal documents and photos.

Merryn Omotayo Alaka and Sam Frésquez

For this episode, we spoke with Merryn Omotayo Alaka and Sam Frésquez, one of the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients.  Collaborative work Kanekalon Forest, on view in the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards exhibition through May 14, 2023, explores the evolution of material culture, including hair, jewelry, and textiles.

Learn More About the Exhibition

Sama Alshaibi: Generation After Generation and the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards

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Jacob van Ruisdael, A River Landscape with a Waterfall (Un paisaje de río con una cascada), c. 1660. Oil on canvas. Gift of Dr. Meryl H. and Mrs. Jeanne Haber.

In the 1930s, the painting was housed in the home-gallery of Jewish Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. In May 1940, as the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, Goudstikker and his family embarked on a journey to escape by boat to England. While they fled, the gallery was looted by the Nazis.

To hear the full story and how van Ruisdael’s A River Landscape with a Waterfall came to the PhxArt Collection, watch the video below, featuring collector Dr. Meryl H. Haber.

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To experience Methuselah in the galleries, mark your calendars! Methuselah will be featured in the special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, organized by El Museo del Barrio and scheduled to open at PhxArt in May 2023.

VISIT THE METHUSELAH WEBSITE

Reynier Leyva Novo, Methuselah, 2021-2022. Digital artwork. Commissioned by El Museo del Barrio with generous support from VIA Art Fund. Courtesy the artist.

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Douglas Miles

For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Douglas Miles, whose work You’re Skating on Native Land encourages audiences to recall the Indigenous histories within the lands on which they stand, skate, and occupy.

Liz Cohen

For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Liz Cohen, whose work Trabantimino speaks to expressions of individuality and resistance within custom-car culture of the Southwest.

José Villalobos

For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from José Villalobos, whose work QueeRiders deconstructs masculine narratives within southwestern fashion and car culture and reclaims derogatory terms the artist himself has been called.

Justin Favela

For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Justin Favela, whose work Gypsy Rose Piñata (II) interrogates Chicanx perspectives of lowrider culture and the symbolism of the Gypsy Rose.

Laurie Steelink

For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Laurie Steelink, whose work Pony functions as an altar piece and nostalgic reflection on growing up in Tucson and a childhood fueled by moments of rebellion, teenage angst, and a larger awareness of her “Indian-ness” in a patriarchal, colonial society.

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Unknown, Hefty Raja with Attendant, Durga on Tiger, and Two Red Blobs of Shiva’s “Spit” in Sky and on His Foot, 19th century. Ink and color on paper. Gift of Drs. Thomas and Martha Carter.

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Lightning bugs have a long history in folklore and mythology across cultures and were often seen as remedies for poison and evil. Inspiring hope and guidance, these creatures were also symbolic markers for rebirth and purity. While not every single firefly in the various 2,000+ species glows, those that do are able to because of luciferin, a light-emitting compound that uses oxygen to generate bioluminescence. The flashing light is said to help these insects communicate, romance a partner, or deter predators. In Victorian tradition, if a firefly got into your house, it was a foretelling that someone in the house would die soon. Thank goodness that tradition has passed!

Immerse yourself in the dancing swarm of fireflies at Phoenix Art Museum, without prophecies of impending doom. Walk through this installation and experience bliss and hope for a good year to come.

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