Bart J Morse (b.1938)

Casa Seton Series, Suzanne and the Elders, 1983
Watercolor, 28" x 45"

"Suzanne and the Elders" is an interior, figurative painting executed in watercolor and collage on paper. It is Morse's version of the oft painted Bible story Susanna and the Elders, which concerns the trial of a virtuous beauty by lecherous forces.

The slight change to "Suzanne" is a wink, contemporizing the name in the early 1980s (Suzanne Somers, etc). Meanwhile, "the Elders" are incarnate, but assumed to be spying from an ominous helicopter outside. As in several CS paintings, a picture within a picture is developed using a mirror on the back of a door, this one reflecting a nude in the shower scene framed by Deco tile and a window. This interior is very similar to the one in Ground Crew. A bit of thick, textured paper becomes a bath mat.

Signed "Bart J. Morse 4/'83 Casa Seton Series Suzanne and the Elders." The Vietnam era helicopter is borrowed from Morse's own print "Morenci Graveyard." He often used rejected paintings or prints as collage material.

Collector and location unknown.