Tress of hair as binding ribbon Symbolism

Hair as a conduit of connection and tension—erotic, caring, yet coercive; a visual ligature between two bodies.

Common Themes

Erotic desireMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Everyday life as art (readymade, the ordinary)Gender & sexualityClass & inequalityLabor & work

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

Combing the Hair by Edgar Degas

Combing the Hair

Edgar Degas (c.1896)

Edgar Degas’s Combing the Hair crystallizes a private ritual into a scene of <strong>compressed intimacy</strong> and <strong>classed labor</strong>. The incandescent field of red fuses figure and room, turning the hair into a <strong>binding ribbon</strong> between attendant and sitter <sup>[1]</sup>.