Backstage 1959

Archibald Motley made "Backstage" with oil on masonite; imagine how he carefully built up the layers of paint. I wonder about this space, though. Is it a dressing room? A boudoir? Motley presents a really intriguing scene with two women in partial undress, a suited man, and a sly black cat. I keep coming back to the woman adjusting her hat. What was Motley thinking when he put that dramatic red hat on her? It dominates the scene, and I can't help but feel the theatricality of the moment. There’s a great tradition of backstage paintings in art history, from Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec. Motley would have been aware of this and makes his own contribution. But it also makes me think about how artists riff off of one another across time. It's like a continuous conversation, bouncing ideas and images back and forth, each adding their own twist, and maybe that’s the real theatre.