Interview

Women, children, and fashion—on paper, Chantal Joffe’s interests seem prettyquotidian. But on canvas, where the 39-year-old artist paints shots ripped from fashion magazines or photographs of friends holding their babies, the feminine world suddenly becomes a dark, loaded, highly sexualized place. Joffe is not a realist. She distorts the women in her frames for ultimate psychological effect. But the subjects rarely seem like victims, even if the brushstrokes are hard and unforgiving. It turns out, Joffe is actually a massive fan of fashion and sees what she does as high celebration. She paints models like Freja Beha, Kate Moss, and Lara Stone because they seem to her like storybook characters come to life. Recently, Joffe even collaborated with fashion photographer Miles Aldridge, painting his wife, model Kristen McMenamy, in Joffe’s studio, while Aldridge shot film. This painting was included in the artist’s most recent solo show, in New York this spring at Cheim & Read gallery. The love of the fashion industry has proven reciprocal. Stella McCartney is one designer who collects Joffe’s work. In fact, Joffe has painted all three of McCartney’s children (the paintings hang in the Stella McCartney store in London) and even shot models backstage at McCartney’s Fall 2009 show in Paris. The two friends caught up to discuss, among other things, why the weird models are always the sexiest.

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STELLA MCCARTNEY: It’s obvious that a lot of your paintings are based on fashion photography. But when I spoke to you at Christmas, you were too scared to go into my shop. So what exactly is the deal here? What’s your take on all of this?

CHANTAL JOFFE: Well, I like the stories. I like the narratives that you get in fashion photography. And I like what the clothes do to the body—the patterns and stripes and all of that.

MCCARTNEY: So it’s not a reaction against the industry?

JOFFE: No.

MCCARTNEY: Because it doesn’t look like one. It looks to me like a celebration of the female form—and that in itself is a connection with fashion.

JOFFE: I don’t know where else I would find all of those images of women. And I actually love specific models as well. It’s funny, I’ve been painting Freja a lot.

MCCARTNEY: So you saw her at my show then?

JOFFE: Yeah, it was like meeting somebody out of a book. I mean, I didn’t talk to her, and I didn’t really want to. She’s such an odd character.

MCCARTNEY: Why didn’t you want to talk to her?

JOFFE: I thought she might think I was creepy, more than anything else. [both laugh] But I like the weird ones. I like the girls who are a little odd.