The table 

Richard Lindner made this painting, 'The Table', using oil on canvas. The smooth, almost mechanical application of paint gives the image an unsettling quality, like a set of shop-window mannequins brought to life. Lindner's experience as a commercial artist is evident in the way he divides the composition into distinct planes of color, like a poster design. Look closely, and you’ll see how he has used the materials to evoke the feeling of a modern, industrialized society. There's a hard-edged geometry to the figures and the setting, a world of straight lines and sharp angles. Even the curves of the figures seem constructed, artificial. The social context here is one of postwar anxiety and the rise of consumer culture. Lindner is using the traditional medium of painting to capture something about the modern experience, with all its contradictions and tensions. The fact that he's working in oil, a medium associated with high art, only adds to the picture’s disquieting impact. It forces us to confront the ways in which fine art and commercial culture are intertwined.