Ruth Marten: All about Eve

All About Eve is the latest series of the American artist Ruth Marten (*1949) which she has been developing since 2022. Here she unfolds a complex interplay involving the boundaries of reality, time, and genre.

She began her career as a tattoo artist and later worked as an illustrator for various publishers and magazines. It was during this time that she discovered the technique of overpainting and collage, subsequently to become integral to her artistic practice. Marten’s works are based on old graphic prints from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as on photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By reworking the originals, she creates a fascinating link between historical representations and contemporary perspectives.

The All About Eve series reflects on the radical cultural shift of the 1920s: the heliogravures reworked by Marten depict female dancers from a French variety theatre, embodying the new freedoms of the post-war era. Through her artistic reworkings, Marten emphasises the diversity and complexity of female possibilities, infusing them with her characteristic dash of humour and subversion.