On the House 1958

Gil Elvgren probably painted this with oils, maybe in the 40s or 50s, and my mind races, thinking about how he built up those layers, one at a time, until the forms emerged. I wonder if he was laughing when he made it? Is it a comedy? Or is there something anxious, or knowing, in the picture? The girl with the antenna is a little like some of Philip Guston's later paintings, or even like some Balthus too, a bit perverse. The color palette is like a summer afternoon, soft and hazy, all yellows and browns. The paint is smooth, but you can tell it’s there, like a freshly frosted cake. There’s a little smudge near her knee, did he mean to leave it? It feels like a thought, an accident, a little gesture of vulnerability. It’s interesting to see how artists keep talking to each other across time, how they all make us think about what it means to see and feel.