In Christine Keeler: Anger, Blame, Shame, Grief, Ruin (2019), Caroline Coon revisits one of the most contested narratives in modern British history. The painting reframes Christine Keeler, whose life was irrevocably shaped by the Profumo Affair of 1963, not as the passive object of scandal, but as a figure through whom the misogyny, class prejudice and institutional hypocrisy of the period are made visible.

Coon presents Keeler as both victim and protagonist. The composition transforms the language of public disgrace into an image of resistance, setting Keeler against a hostile symbolic field of accusation, punishment and moral judgement. The reference to Medusa sharpens the work’s feminist charge: the mythic female figure, long associated with monstrosity and male fear, is reimagined as a force of defence and retribution.

The painting also carries a striking material connection to British Pop, incorporating touches of original paint once belonging to Pauline Boty, whose own work addressed sexuality, celebrity and the politics of looking. In doing so, Coon establishes a dialogue between two artists concerned with the representation of women under conditions of spectacle and control.

Exhibited in Dear Christine, curated by Fionn Wilson, the painting forms part of a broader feminist reassessment of Keeler’s image and legacy. It is a work of historical reckoning, but also of reclamation: a painting that turns scandal into testimony, and shame into political force.