ARTmonday: 36 Obscured Portraits of Women

If you follow the ARTmonday posts,  you’ll know that as much as I love abstract art, I am especially drawn to artwork featuring female figures. Among my many posts highlighting specific female painters or more frequently, photographers, who create quirky or elusive images of women (Cig Harvey, Viviane Sassen, Natsumi Hayashi), I’ve also curated a number of roundups, including Women Thinking, Women In the Kitchen, Figures in the Landscape, Women In Water, and Girls At Play. (For more, you can also peruse my Pinterest boards Female Figures in Art, PortraitsNudes.)

I have so many images of women turning their backs on the camera, that I thought for sure I did a post of those, but I can’t find it, so maybe not. Today’s post features 36 portraits of women whose faces are obscured in some way. The overall image might be blurry, her head could be wrapped in twigs (or a shower curtain!), perhaps her hair is in her face, or she’s wearing a blindfold. Or, the image might show what could have been a perfectly straightforward rendering, but then he or she dripped paint over the visage, or whited out all traces of personality.

Some of these obscured portraits of women are cloaked in mystery, others are silly, and still others, a tad subversive. I find them all appealing. (I left out the more disturbing of the finds this time around.)

obscured-portrait-agnieszk-maria-zieba

Smooth #1  •  Agnieszk Maria Zieba

obscured-portrait-petra-stridfeldt

Petra Stridfeldt

obscured-portrait-andy-denzler

Andy Denzler

obscured-portrait-barbara-baldi

Barbara Baldi

obscured-portrait-parker-fitzgerald

Parker Fitzgerald

obscured-portrait-melodie-mousset

Melodie Mousset

obscured-portrait-jovana-lakovic-hunger

“Hunger”  •  Jovana Lakovic

obscured-portrait-alex-quisite

unidentified

obscured-portrait-underwater-camera

Julia Skopnik

obscured-portrait-annija-muižule

Annija Muižule

obscured-portrait-joakim-heltne-human-sculptures

Human Sculptures  •  Joakim Heltne

obscured-portrait-jose-romussi

Jose Romussi

obscured-portrait-woman-purple-background

Wilkosz & Way

obscured-portrait-chiara-elisa-ragghianti

“Portrait with the Cat”  •  Chiara Elisa Ragghianti

obscured-portrait-wool-and-the-gang

Wool and the Gang

obscured-portraits-yann-faoucon

Yann Faucon

obscured-portrait-chad-wys

“Portrait with a Spectrum 3”  •  Chad Wys

obscured-portrait-confetti

unidentified

obscured-portrait-ping-homeric

“Paper Butterflies”  •  Ping Homeric

obscured-portrait-refinery-29

Maia Harms

obscured-portrait-tabitha-vevers-night-eyes

“Sky of Tears”  •  Tabitha Vevers

obscured-portrait-flora-borsi

“Essäché”  •  Flora Borsi

obscured-portrait-grace-coddington-by-tim -walker

Grace Coddington  •  Tim  Walker

obscured-portrait-grafitti

Rafael Sliks

obscured-portrait-melissa-gamwell

Melissa Gamwell

obscured-portrait-curtain-hair

Mate Moro

obscured-portrait-blue-head

Javier Martin

obscured-portrait-face-kinis-by-peng-chen

Face-Kinis  •  Peng Chen

obscured-portrait-alessandro-passerini

“Ubearable”  •  Alessandro Passerini

obscured-portrait-robert-flynn

“A Bundled Mass of Confusion”   •  Robert Flynn

obscured-portrait-sarah-bodri

Sarah Bodri

obscured-portrait-urs-fischer

Urs Fischer

obscured-portrait-lalla-essaydi

Lalla Essaydi

obscured-portrait-neal-turner

“Portrait of Petra Collins”  •  Neal Turner

Marianne Faithfull by David Redfern

Marianne Faithfull  by  David Redfern