The Silent Invader 1977

Don Ivan Punchatz made this eerie painting called 'The Silent Invader' with oil paints, though I'm not sure exactly when. Looking at it, I get the sense of a process of layering, of building up these strange, unsettling forms bit by bit. The texture is amazing, right? It's like he's sculpting with the paint. Take a look at the red alien figure on the left. The way the light catches those bulbous shapes makes them almost seem wet. It's both repulsive and captivating. And then there are the masks – so smooth and eerily human, a stark contrast to the fleshy creatures holding them. I wonder about that harsh, crescent moon above. It feels like a spotlight, illuminating this weird theatre of deception. Punchatz reminds me a bit of some of Philip Guston's later work, where he embraced this kind of raw, almost cartoonish style. Both artists use that directness to dig into something deeper, something uncomfortable about being human. In the end, it's up to us to decide what that might be.