Cover, Girl! 1965

Editor: This is Gil Elvgren’s “Cover, Girl!”, an oil painting from 1965. There's such an overt display of objectification. I am really curious, what’s your interpretation? Curator: This image performs an interesting dance. On the one hand, you have what seems to be straightforward pin-up art. But the slickness of the oil paint and the mechanics of its production complicates things. Think about it: mass-produced for calendars, appealing to a specific kind of consumer desire. Where does the craft end, and the capitalist machine begin? Editor: So you're suggesting the painting itself isn’t the endpoint, but part of a larger economic system? Curator: Precisely. The labour of creating the painting, the materiality of the paint, and its journey into mass consumption – it's all interwoven. Is the subject aware of the viewer, of her objectification, or is she complicit in the manufacture of desire? Editor: That's a good point, this genre plays into how an item is produced and how desire plays a crucial role in its manufacture. Is that a typical theme? Curator: Often, yes. The visual language flattens her. Yet, paradoxically, it’s precisely that industrial reproducibility which made it popular. Editor: That completely reshapes how I see this! I was focused on the figure, but considering the processes of production makes it way more complicated. Curator: Exactly. Think about the conditions of artmaking – the materials, the labour, the intended audience. All part of the bigger picture.