Linda II 1974

John Kacere's 'Linda II' is a photorealistic painting, all smooth surfaces and soft gradients, that seems to play with the tension between representation and abstraction. The handling of paint here is so subtle, so precise, it almost disappears. Kacere painstakingly builds up these luminous flesh tones with thin layers of pigment, creating a surface that feels both incredibly present and strangely detached. It's like he's inviting us to lose ourselves in the details – the curve of a hip, the way the light catches on the fabric – while also reminding us that this is, after all, just paint on canvas. I'm reminded of Gerhard Richter's blurred photographs – that same sense of longing, of wanting to grasp something that always remains just out of reach. Both artists, in their own ways, push us to question the nature of seeing, of knowing, and of the slippery relationship between image and reality.