The Next 1977

Curator: This is Paul Delvaux’s "The Next," painted in 1977. It strikes me as an interesting display of figures in a very strange landscape. What do you make of it? Editor: It’s…unsettling. These women are wearing formal dresses, but then there’s a nude figure, and everyone seems disconnected. The landscape feels artificial too, almost like a stage set. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I'm particularly drawn to the materials and the processes at play here. Delvaux painstakingly renders fabric and flesh, employing oil paint to achieve an almost hyperrealistic texture. Consider the socio-economic context: in 1977, the female body and fashion were heavily politicized. What does it mean to juxtapose idealized feminine forms with a manufactured environment? Editor: So you're suggesting the materials themselves are conveying meaning beyond just what's depicted? Like the texture of the dresses relates to the role of women? Curator: Exactly. The materiality is paramount. Oil paint, historically linked to the production of high art, is used here to depict both conventional beauty and elements of the bizarre. Look closely: Is that tiling real marble? Are the dresses factory-made or couture? The materials and how they are depicted become a language themselves, speaking to issues of labor and production of these various surfaces and textures. What could all of this suggest when shown together? Editor: I see what you mean. I hadn't considered the act of painting as a statement itself, about commercialization or the constructed nature of femininity at the time. It’s like Delvaux is highlighting the artifice behind the presentation. Curator: Precisely. The "Next" questions the very fabrication of images and surfaces. Art is rarely disconnected from consumerism, in its processes, and subjects. Editor: That’s fascinating. I’ll definitely look at art through this material lens from now on. Thanks! Curator: A pleasure! Paying attention to how something is made can reveal so much.