Artwork
Blue Hair, Block Eyes, Cube Cheeks, Striped Lips Now!
Blue Hair, Block Eyes, Cube Cheeks, Striped Lips Now! is a watercolor work on paper by the Pop art artist Barbara Nessim. It dates from 1967 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
The image depicts a watercolour painting of a woman with blue hair, block eyes, cube cheeks, and striped lips.
The image depicts a watercolour painting of a woman with blue hair, block eyes, cube cheeks, and striped lips. She is wearing a black shirt and has a yellow object behind her. The background is white, with a blue border at the top and a yellow border on the left side.
The painting is titled "Blue Hair, Block Eyes, Cube Cheeks, Striped Lips Now!" and was created by Barbara Nessim in 1967. It is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The use of bold colours and geometric shapes gives the painting a playful and modern feel. The artist's use of chiaroscuro creates a sense of depth and dimensionality in the painting. If you're interested in learning more about the artist, you can look up Barbara Nessim.
Overview
Barbara Nessim’s 1967 watercolour, titled “Blue Hair, Block Eyes, Cube Cheeks, Striped Lips Now!,” portrays a single female figure rendered in vivid, flat colour. The composition is set against a white field edged with a blue top border and a yellow left border. The sitter wears a black shirt, while a yellow object appears behind her, adding a contrasting accent.
Subject & Meaning
The portrait emphasizes stylised facial features: the hair is rendered in an unmistakable blue hue, the eyes are reduced to rectangular blocks, the cheeks take on a cubic geometry, and the lips are marked with alternating stripes. These exaggerated, graphic elements suggest a playful interrogation of contemporary beauty standards and the abstraction of identity in the late‑1960s.
Technique & Style
Executed in watercolour, Nessim employs bold, saturated pigments that retain flatness while allowing subtle washes to suggest volume. A restrained use of chiaroscuro creates modest depth, particularly around the cheek planes and the folds of the black shirt. The overall visual language combines geometric abstraction with a pop‑inspired colour palette, characteristic of the artist’s experimental approach.
History & Provenance
Created in 1967, the work entered the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it remains on view. Its acquisition reflects the museum’s interest in mid‑century British illustration and the emerging dialogue between fine art and commercial design during that period.
Context
The piece emerges from a decade marked by graphic experimentation and the rise of pop culture imagery in fine art. Nessim, known for her work in illustration and fashion, integrates commercial visual vocabularies—bright colour blocks, simplified forms—into a portrait format, aligning the work with broader trends in 1960s visual culture.
Artist & collection
Artist
Barbara Nessim (born 1939) is an American artist, illustrator, and educator whose work has played a significant role in expanding the boundaries between illustration, fine art, and digital media.
