Candy and Cream 2018

Curator: This piece, entitled "Candy and Cream," was completed by Greg Hildebrandt in 2018. It’s an oil painting which continues his established themes while subtly updating them for a modern audience. Editor: My initial impression is...classic cheesecake! It’s playful, bright, and unabashedly a male gaze fantasy, no? That flouncy polka dot dress looks like it might be acetate, not sure about those sheer hose, nylon perhaps? Curator: Indeed. Hildebrandt positions his work within a long history of pin-up art, referencing artists like Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas. Yet, his works operate on another level, capturing and re-imaging the American ideal. The commercial context is so crucial. Editor: Yes, absolutely. Note how central labor is here. The blatant objectification coexists with the representation of the manual worker emerging from the street’s surface. This image exposes a system that depends on making female sexuality marketable alongside often invisible infrastructures. I see that tension as very modern. Curator: Exactly! What's striking is the use of modernism blended with realism and portraiture. It feels subversive, as his style simultaneously reinforces and subverts genre conventions, highlighting our socio-political obsession with idealised sexuality, set in the average locale. Editor: The finish looks exceptionally smooth; do you think there are layers of glazing or maybe an imprimatur beneath? It is incredibly photorealistic but with a strong element of the constructed, like those vintage cars; icons ready to be commodified in the current nostalgia market. Curator: Hildebrandt's background in illustration perhaps is also crucial here. It asks us to reflect on the wider contexts that drive art and image production and its connection to gender roles and consumer culture in the twenty-first century. Editor: Agreed, I think by bringing these ideas of work and labor directly into view, the artist challenges us to contemplate what or who is being consumed here beyond the woman and her presumed sexuality. Curator: Precisely. This artwork offers a potent commentary, one layered with artistic references and material signifiers which opens up a fascinating perspective of contemporary genre painting. Editor: For sure, a loaded piece layered with nostalgia and modern cultural criticism. A heady mix for such seemingly fluffy subject matter.