Posing in Thigh High Boots 

Editor: We are looking at Patrick Nagel's, "Posing in Thigh High Boots," in acrylic paint. The palette is really muted, almost pastel-like, except for these striking black boots, and the woman has this come-hither look in her eyes... what are your thoughts on the piece? Curator: Come-hither indeed! There’s this delicious, almost dangerous tension, isn't there? It feels…coded. Nagel was so adept at capturing the essence of the 80s – power dressing, sleek lines, a certain kind of aloof glamour. Her posture isn't just provocative, but powerful. What do you make of the space she inhabits? Does that clinical grid soften or amplify her effect? Editor: I think it amplifies it, in a weird way! The soft, desaturated colors of the grid contrasted with the sharp, focused sexuality of her pose feels like it is defamiliarizing or like turning into a drawing what would have been traditionally expressed otherwise, in real life, in photography. Curator: Precisely! And consider the absence, too – the unsaid. There's a deliberate flattening of emotion, and it leaves space for our imagination to run wild. Almost like he wants us to participate in the creation of meaning, don't you think? How do you see her fitting into today's art scene, so much later in time? Editor: I suppose today the male gaze of Nagel's painting would be addressed and scrutinized with gender discourses. Thinking of female artists responding critically to the canon, I could envision this work being deconstructed to analyze gender issues, sexuality or stereotypes. Curator: That's so interesting. It's like a game of artistic telephone, one generation echoing, questioning, and reinventing the messages of the last. I've so enjoyed your views and your sensibility in bringing the piece up to the modern world. Editor: Me too! It's been a learning experience to hear your insight into its 80's cultural background.