Playboy Pin-Up 1982

This Playboy Pin-Up was created by Patrick Nagel, using flat planes of color to create a very stylized figure. It looks like the artist has used acrylic paint here. I can imagine the painting was built up from flat, clearly delineated blocks of color. I'm thinking about his process and what it was like for him to try to resolve and create his subject. The graphic quality, the strong contrasts – black against fuchsia – create a bold image. The pose—confident, but also a little defensive, vulnerable. The artist is in conversation with other painters, like Alex Katz, who was doing similar things with flat color and figure-ground relationships. The history of art is just artists riffing off each other, using each other as raw material, trying to push the boundaries of what painting can do. What does this painting invite in me? What do I bring to it?