The shaped canvas and placement of images in Life Begins directs the viewer’s eye, acting like a diagram relating three different births—of plants, of humans, and of the cosmos. Juxtaposing themes such as science, nature, and creation was central to the Post-Surrealism initiated in 1934 by Feitelson and his partner, painter Helen Lundeberg. The movement was unique to the West Coast and, as seen here, sometimes incorporated imagery from astronomical observatories such as the Griffith Observatory, which had opened in Los Angeles the year before this painting was made. Although the artists distanced themselves from Surrealism’s focus on sensuality and the unconscious, these elements are arguably present in Life Begins, as is wordplay: the photograph of a newborn baby was sourced from Life magazine’s inaugural issue, a birth of another kind.
Wall label, 2021.
