Executed in 2020, Warm, Wet ‘N’ Wild is an outstanding example of Flora Yukhnovich’s synthesis of contemporary abstraction and the extravagance of the Rococo. On the surface of the present work, shades of teal, blue, emerald and cream, coalesce, forming an abstracted arcadian scene at once elegant and erotic. Within Yukhnovich’s bold and loose brushwork, lounging forms of female nude bodies emerge in the foreground, utterly at ease within the fluidity of the foliage behind. In her highly gestural painterly style, Yukhnovich deftly navigates the middle ground between figuration and abstraction, as human bodies dissolve into the dynamism of fleshy and thick impastoed brushwork.

Warm, Wet ‘N’ Wild exemplifies Yukhnovich’s adoption of the visual language of the Rococo, drawing inspiration from the frivolity and elegance of eighteenth-century masterworks by François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In the present work, Yukhnovich explores the world of fête galantes made famous by Jean-Antoine Watteau; indeed, works such as the sprawling Fête in a Park (circa 1718-20) which depict the wealthy at leisure and at play in lush forested settings are reference points central to Yukhnovich’s recent output. The artist herself asserts, “The Rococo is not a popular movement, so it holds some of that tension for me. The same goes for aesthetic languages traditionally associated with women and girls… So for me, the feminine also has this conflict built into it – the oscillation between pleasure and shame is a recurring theme in my work” (Flora Yukhnovich quoted in: Charlie Siddick, “Tate, Tactility and Flesh,” Detangle Art, June 2020 (online)). Thus re-imagining the social and sexual politics at play in decadent works like Boucher’s The Setting of the Sun (1752) and fusing the frills of the Rococo aesthetic with tongue-in-cheek pop culture references, Yukhnovich conjures unapologetically euphoric and erotic scenes fit for the contemporary age.