Expelling the Vices 2014

Kent Monkman painted "Expelling the Vices" with oils, and what strikes me is its storybook energy, like a vintage illustration bubbling with subversive ideas. It’s bursting with warm yellows and oranges, set against these cool blues, with a real push-and-pull feeling. Looking at it, I feel the artist’s hand, deciding, correcting, layering—you know? I imagine Monkman standing back, squinting, adding that flick of the wrist to the horse's mane as the whip is raised. Think of the artist wrestling with art history, with its power dynamics, who gets to be on top, who gets to be remembered, and in what light. That figure on the horse is so charged with energy; it’s like they're riding right out of the canvas and our assumptions. Mount Rushmore looms in the background but is dwarfed by this powerful figure, with the artist perhaps suggesting that history is never set in stone but always open to reinterpretation. Painting is like a big, ongoing conversation, isn't it? We’re all just riffing off each other, trying to say something new.