Eternal youth

Comprising two parts: a larger figurative painting with a horse hair tail hanging in front, next to a smaller text, 'Eternal youth' combines a sense of adventure with the reality that artworks are for sale and that being purchased by a museum is highly desirable, for an artist's self esteem and their career. Painted in 1992, the work was exhibited with a larger suite of paintings the following year, when the artist was chosen to represent Australia at the 1993 Venice Biennale.

Reflecting the hype, gossip and speculation that usually follow these major art events, Jenny Watson's paintings reminds us that when times-or in this case an artist's life-reaches a 'high point' there is still the chance that things may fall through. The figure with the guitar case and the title 'Eternal youth' seems to suggest the desirability of being young and also perhaps the unsettled life an artist leads. Drawing an analogy between the artist's life with all its career vagaries or even that of an iterant busker, the figure seems ready to perform for their supper.

The text on the panel is both ironic and predictive, an affirmative statement embodying the desire of the artist for a museum to purchase the work and in conjunction with the figure the suggestion that the thought this work will make it could just be blind optimism. The horse's tail stands in for the figures hair and also recalls Watson's great love of horses and identification with them, a recurring motif in her work.