Golden Couple 2018

Lisa Yuskavage made this painting, Golden Couple, with oil. What's interesting to me is the color: this isn't your typical gold, it's a kind of yellowed, burnished gold. It's like looking at the world through sepia-toned glasses. The paint is applied thinly, letting the light bounce around, creating a dreamy effect. Look at the way the light hits the woman’s stomach; it’s almost pearlescent. There's a softness to the forms, a blurring of edges that makes the figures feel both present and distant. It's as if they're emerging from a memory or a dream. Yuskavage's work has always played with these notions of fantasy and desire, and it reminds me of early Picasso, who also blurred the distinction between the real and the imagined. Art is about embracing ambiguity, and allowing for multiple interpretations.