Nude (Sunburned Backside) 1965

Curator: Ralph Goings' "Nude (Sunburned Backside)," created in 1965 with acrylic paint. What catches your eye first? Editor: The sheer flatness of the composition. The sharp delineation between the skin tones and that unapologetic yellow background. It's so direct. Curator: Direct it is! Goings was part of the Photo-Realist movement. Artists reacted against the dominance of abstract expressionism, and questioned art’s increasing detachment from recognizable imagery and popular culture. Editor: The choice to focus on the rear view—avoiding a direct gaze, is interesting. It de-personalizes the subject, reducing it to form and texture. Curator: Consider the era. In the mid-60s, ideas around sexual liberation were emerging, but censorship still persisted. Presenting a nude backside instead of a face may have offered the artist some shelter. Editor: And there's this contrast in tones; that raw redness offset by a cool white. Is he thinking about color theory? Curator: Possibly. Though realism aims for exact representation, Goings still has to manipulate and edit, making aesthetic choices based on formal considerations, like creating those transitions. Editor: And the smoothness is remarkable, like it is glazed. It lacks texture—despite its photorealistic aspiration, it maintains a quality of artificiality. Curator: Yes, this work raises issues that Photo-Realism provokes about how photography impacts perceptions, representations and constructions around “real” images. The rise of digital and Instagram “reality” today certainly reinforces the ongoing potency of the conversations Photo-Realism initiated. Editor: For me, this close attention to such a quotidian scene yields an image of undeniable sensuality. That focus highlights a common vulnerability, our skin’s response to sunlight, with a playful perspective. Curator: Its historical value for contextualizing attitudes around art production and image culture cannot be underestimated. Editor: An unexpectedly moving piece.