The same old model 1908

Louis Glackens created "The Same Old Model" without a specified date, probably with ink and paint. Look at the way Glackens uses these bright, almost garish colors. I see the bold reds and blues alongside these muted greens and browns that feel very of-the-moment, like a snapshot of an argument you might overhear in a coffee shop. It really feels like a process, more about the doing than the done. It's the texture that grabs me, though. See how the ink bleeds out of the drawing, it's thick in some places, thin in others, like he’s wrestling with the idea as much as the image itself. Everything is so deliberate, yet messy, controlled, yet somehow wild. There is this tiny gap between the stripes in Uncle Sam's trousers. It's such a small thing, but it’s there, it makes me feel like Glackens is winking at us. Like he is saying, “It’s all a joke, you know?” The German artist George Grosz comes to mind. He also used satire to expose the absurdity of political theater. Art is like a conversation, always responding, always questioning.