“Leda” – 1982

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“Leda” is a puzzle. The “real” Leda of Greek mythology is a lovely female seduced by the god Zeus in the guise of a swan and impregnated. In Hirshman’s rendering, there is no swan, only a bust-head painting on the wall that could be of Zeus. Leda, sitting provocatively on a loveseat of nails, has a visibly broken heart in a see-through purse, sown up and bandaged; perhaps a ball of pregnancy in her stomach; and an arm being delivered as a nose from a head of hand. Indeed, it is difficult to say which is stranger – the mythological rape or this bizarre artistic interpretation.

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