Predator 2009

Nelson Shanks made this painting, Predator, with oil on canvas sometime in the late 20th or early 21st century. It’s wild, right? The model is lounging on the couch with a kind of bored expression on her face, like she’s been there for hours. I wonder what it was like to be in the room with Shanks as he built up this image. How long did it take for the surface of the painting to arrive at this level of finish? This kind of painting doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. I am curious about what it's like to be someone other than myself looking for things in paintings. The more I look at it, the more I see how he’s playing with art historical genres, like the nude, the portrait, and the still life. It reminds me that all artists are magpies, borrowing and stealing ideas from each other across time. We're all in conversation, you know? Like passing notes in class. Ultimately, this painting asks us to think about how we see and interpret images.