She was bigger than life, Doris Fish. She was gifted, ambitious, and egotistical. When everyone else was creating work with hard edges and Op-Art influences at Sydney’s Julien Ashton Art School, Doris was creating portraits in the manner of the 1930s, frequently of herself and always dressed as a man. Doris then discovered the decadent 1960s and, in some ways, never left. Even the cult classic Vegas in Space, which is considered to be Doris’ finest work, was marketed as «An outer space, adventure musical comedy dealing with the glamorous irrational behaviour on an all-female pleasure planet in the 23rd century, set in the 1960s».
Whether she was painting, filming, or performing, Doris thought that more was never enough and that larger was always better. Both Doris’ art and drag are glitzy. She combined paint and cosmetics in her paintings. Doris painted her teeth to make them look whiter on stage. In 1986, Doris admitted to Craig Seligman, who would eventually write her biography, «Face it, if I could paint my eyeballs, I would». The Hollywood Version of beauty, as she described it, was exaggerated in Doris’ artwork. It is at the core of her life, drag, and art.
More information about the exhibition is available at glbthistory.org/doris-fish-ego-as-artform.
