My Rainbow Scarf 2013

Curator: Looking at Lisa Yuskavage's "My Rainbow Scarf" from 2013, the first thing I notice is the ethereal, almost dreamlike quality of the figure. She seems to be emerging from a hazy, undefined space. What do you make of it? Editor: I feel like I've stumbled upon a private moment. There’s a certain vulnerability but also a defiant pride in the subject's gaze, or what little we can see of it. And the scarf is that wonderful burst of colour amidst a largely desaturated palette; like sunshine after a storm. Curator: It’s interesting you bring up the palette. Yuskavage employs oil paint here to explore flesh tones and to create, really, a contrast between this luminescent scarf, as you've put it, and the rest of the canvas, the hazy background. I'm thinking about the labour in producing this "look." The painting style places it firmly in a contemporary take on neo-expressionism. We have these erotic elements and it definitely challenges what's 'high art' or 'craft' with its raw but skilled material usage. Editor: Absolutely. I can’t help but think of those old master paintings – goddesses and nymphs – but then Yuskavage adds this undeniably modern twist; the scarf seems like a neon sign wrapped around classicism. There’s something incredibly provocative about reclaiming and repurposing the female nude. It’s almost as if she is in control of the spectacle of her body and the painter is following suit. Curator: That perspective really illuminates the socio-political undercurrent of this piece. In "My Rainbow Scarf", Yuskavage's process involved a negotiation between these various art historical contexts, all of this while considering her contemporary audience. We, in turn, are complicit through the act of consumption of it all. Editor: The ambiguity draws you in. Who is this woman? Where is she going? The muted background almost gives the effect of a memory, blurring the details but intensifying the emotion. She is the subject, the main attraction, almost daring us to define her solely by our consumption of her image, her materials. A wonderful thought piece, if you let it sink in. Curator: A perfect place to pause. The complex layers, both visual and contextual, encourage ongoing examination and reflection, I would say. Editor: Indeed. An unsettling beauty that keeps you looking, questioning, feeling… and maybe smiling a little.