Natalie 2015

Editor: We're looking at "Natalie" from 2015 by Robert McGinnis, an oil painting. It strikes me as intentionally classic, like a modern take on an odalisque, but… the shoes feel contemporary. What do you see in it? Curator: Well, I immediately see a dialogue being set up between traditional oil painting techniques, readily associated with a certain level of ‘high art’, and this almost commercial, pin-up sensibility. How are traditional materials employed here to either reinforce or subvert existing structures within the art world? Editor: So, the *process* of using oil paint is significant here? Is it about the tension between a classical technique and a potentially "lower" subject? Curator: Precisely. The medium carries its own baggage. Oil paint traditionally allowed for precise rendering, as seen here. Yet, consider the background. That hazy green. Is that laziness, cost-cutting, or a deliberate decision to juxtapose highly refined technique with something more ambiguous, perhaps referencing mass production techniques? What’s being revealed about labor itself? Editor: I hadn't thought about that contrast within the *same* work. So, we're meant to consider *why* these materials were used in this specific way? And also the economic conditions of making this art, to better understand it? Curator: Exactly! The oil paint itself becomes an active participant in the reading of the image, not just a passive carrier of the image itself. Think about where the paints originate and the cost. All choices influence meaning. Editor: I never thought about it like that, about reading materials themselves for clues. That definitely gives me a lot to think about when looking at paintings. Curator: Indeed. It compels us to really question the layers of production at work, complicating what might initially appear as simply a classically rendered portrait.