Barbara 2010

Curator: Let's spend a moment with Nelson Shanks' painting, "Barbara," created in 2010. It's an oil on canvas portrait in the realist style. What’s your immediate response to this piece? Editor: Overwhelming, initially! It feels so dense. My eye doesn't quite know where to land. The profusion of objects around the figure almost swallows her up. It's like a very elaborate stage setting, bordering on theatrical. Curator: The density is interesting, isn't it? It evokes the Dutch tradition of still life painting, overflowing with symbols of worldly possessions, achievement, and often, memento mori. In this composition, however, how do you interpret those elements? Editor: I guess I see it as a representation of the artist's world. All those framed canvases, those sculptural objects...it creates an ambiance. Does it risk overwhelming Barbara herself? It makes me think about the place of the individual within layers of culture. There's something subtly vulnerable about her, amidst all the collected artifice. Curator: Yes, the juxtaposition creates an undeniable tension. The nude figure surrounded by artifacts from art history seems to pose a question: how do we perceive the individual versus the created object? The gaze, for example... Editor: Her gaze meets the viewer directly, but without coyness or aggression. A very thoughtful and perhaps tired look? Almost, are we a further part of the artifice, the staging that surrounds her? Is it even fair to try to peel those layers back and see 'just' Barbara? Curator: Precisely. She seems to be a figure existing not just within the artist’s studio but also within the wider landscape of art itself, as a nude, that is often, or perhaps, nearly always the case. There are so many historical antecedents echoed in the imagery... Editor: Definitely! The whole composition references odalisques and classical nudes. So it brings into sharp relief this intersection of a real, present individual versus artistic traditions. In her face there is none of the coy posturing of those odalisques though, there’s gravity there. Curator: I agree, and perhaps Shanks seeks to move past superficial associations towards a kind of essential, grounded humanism by situating the model amongst his professional impedimenta. So interesting to unpack its meaning here today with you. Editor: Indeed, a captivating and thoughtful composition, which prompts a consideration of subject, and artifice in that space. Food for thought, or dare I say, ears!