Renegade Sea Nymph and her Crew of Strange Castaways 1963

Mort Künstler's 'Renegade Sea Nymph and her Crew of Strange Castaways' is a pulp painting with, well, a strange and wonderful mix of characters, all crammed on board a small boat. You can almost feel the artist working and reworking the figures and how they are lit, pushing the boundaries of the image. The paint is laid on smoothly to create a heightened sense of drama; I find it hard not to respond to the narrative. The artist pulls from so many different genres; the painting is reminiscent of a classic wartime movie, with the archetypal blonde bombshell, but I can see echoes of Philip Guston, too, in the cartoon-like depiction of the characters. Künstler's artwork reminds us that all artists are magpies, borrowing from other artists and genres. A painting can be a conversation, both within the artist and with the past. We bring our interpretation and experience. And that's the beauty of it.