Untitled 

David Michael Bowers created this painting. At first glance, it recalls the languid sensuality of the European odalisque paintings, with a fair-skinned woman in repose. However, Bowers, working in America in the late 20th and early 21st century, presents us with a more complex layering of cultural signs and signifiers. She wears a Japanese kimono, not a Turkish costume. The kimono is blue not white, and she is not awake. Rather, she seems to be deeply asleep or lost in thought, and in this way perhaps challenges historical portrayals of women as objects of male desire. There is a quiet stillness to this image, which invites contemplation of the emotional and psychological state of the subject. In choosing sleep over alertness, Bowers seems to reject a traditionally active role for his sitter, opting instead to foreground an interiority that is both personal and enigmatic.