El Vapor (Mexican Steam Bath or Steaming Mexican Women)
Three nudes are the protagonists of El Vapor (Mexican Steam Bath or Steaming Mexican Women) (1987) by Harriet Macaree. The central figure washes another, whilst the woman on the right-hand side rests on a ledge. They are enmeshed by yellow-orange steam, seemingly unaware of the viewer. The heady atmosphere that Macaree creates by capturing steam and compressing space to create intimacy reflects her mission as an artist to condense experience onto the canvas. This work was painted near to the end of her eleven years spent in Mexico, by which time her work had transitioned from organically abstracted paintings of heat, form, and colour in fertile tropical landscapes, to expressionistic responses to people in the towns and villages that she lived in.
