Innen und Aussen 1991

Siegfried Zademack made this compelling painting, Innen und Aussen, which translates as Inside and Outside, with oil on canvas. It's a very precisely painted image of a mannequin, a wooden artists’ model. But the skin is torn. It's as though it’s been ripped apart, and the mannequin is holding a circle that appears to be measuring its geometry. The light is pretty amazing, too, the way it sculpts the figure and the room. I can imagine Zademack, in the studio, working on this figure and the room. He's building up the layers of oil paint slowly, creating the illusion of depth and form. Maybe he's thinking about anatomy, or mathematical proportion, or about what it means to be contained or exposed. The artist's mannequin is a common theme throughout art history and it raises interesting questions. What do you think?