Portrait of GN and Tofu 2020

Aaron Nagel made this oil painting, titled Portrait of GN and Tofu, sometime this century. I love the way Nagel captures the soft tension between human and animal, with the slightly glazed look in their eyes – a shared moment of affection tinged with the absurd. The colour palette is subdued, mostly earth tones and greys, but with these flashes of pink in the hair which makes everything pop. Looking closely, you can see how the texture of the paint varies across the canvas. In some areas, like the cat’s fur, it’s built up in layers, creating a palpable sense of depth. Then elsewhere, such as in the grey background, the brushstrokes are softer, almost blurred. There is an intimacy in the gaze they both share, like Pierre Bonnard's paintings of his wife Marthe. It is a piece that reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation between artists and their subjects.