Antemann's more recent works have grown in scale and ambition, but even the smaller works can exhibit a good deal of complexity. In some instances this can be seen in the virtuoso craftsmanship, such as might be seen in
Polishing the Silver:
What is presumably the maid is engaged (partially) in polishing the silver and the fine china which is portrayed in the most exquisite detail, while distracted by her naked suitor (another household servant… or perhaps the husband or son?). One cannot help but smile at the clever irony of a porcelain vignette displaying miniature works of porcelain.
In other instances, it is the narrative that has grown more complicated… often involving a Ménage à trois of some sort or another. In this piece, all pretense of doing the household chores has been tossed aside as a couple frolics amidst a glorious array of pies, cakes, and other sweets while a second girl looks on.
In
Coup two young girls are playing with or fighting over their sole male “boy toy" and one is left wondering, is this a coup de grâce or a coup d’état?
In
No Shrinking Violet, the usual male fantasy of a “threesome" involving two women is turned on its head as the woman ponders her choices between two male suitors… and perhaps as the title suggests, she’ll be open to choosing both:
Another piece involving a threesome... one of Antemann's finest IMO... suggests a degree of curiosity and perhaps jealousy as one woman watches a pair of lovers from behind a large armoire:
Antemann’s works are certainly not profound or weighty… but neither are they pretentious. Antemann merrily speaks of her goals as being “fashion and vanity mingled with romance and kitsch: fashion and jugs, boobs and shoes, rack and ruin!“ The resulting works are charming, clever, witty, and sexy. They certainly remind the viewer of the most playful examples of Rococo art, especially the paintings of Boucher:
... but also the porcelain figurines by unknown artisans:
... the operas of Mozart and the poetry of John Herrick:
A SWEET disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction :
An erring lace which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher :
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly :
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat :
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility :
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
WHENAS in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free ;
O how that glittering taketh me !
JULIA was careless, and withal
She rather took than got a fall ;
The wanton ambler chanc’d to see
Part of her legs’ sincerity :
And ravish’d thus, it came to pass,
The nag (like to the prophet’s ass)
Began to speak, and would have been
A-telling what rare sights he’d seen
And had told all ; but did refrain
Because his tongue was tied again.
The irony inherent in Antemann’s pseudo-18th century imagery, however, is far more suggestive of the poetry of Paul Verlaine from his
Fête galantes:
Scaramouche et Pulcinella
Qu’un mauvais dessein rassembla
Gesticulent, noirs sous la lune,
Cependant l’excellent docteur
Bolonais cueille avec lenteur
Des simples parmi l’herbe brune.
Lors sa fille, piquant minois,
Sous la charmille, en tapinois,
Se glisse demi nue en quête
De son beau pirate espagnol,
Dont un amoureux rossignol
Clame la détresse à tue-tête.
O course Antemann’s works might best be looked at in comparison with the Neo-Rococo paintings of Will Cotton:
One might not wish to make a full diet of Antemann’s sweet visual confections, but they certainly offer the viewer some much-needed eye-candy in contrast to a great majority of the pretentious, angst-laden, dark and frequently ugly art that dominates a good deal of what shows up in the major galleries today.
TMI! Another wondered about a nude male that was based on Elvis. She wanted to know how I knew that Elvis was circumcised! 
). He co-founded