The Samaritans 2014

Bo Bartlett painted The Samaritans in oil, and you can tell that he has really worked the surface in layers. The way Bartlett handles paint reminds me of filmmakers like David Lynch. The figures are so realistically rendered that you feel like you know them, even though the narrative is totally surreal, dreamlike, and unsettling. Take, for example, the figure in the dunce cap. This area is painted in more muted tones. The cap itself is almost sculptural. It's these kinds of surprising formal devices that make the painting so rewarding to look at. I see in Bartlett a cousin of Odd Nerdrum, who has a similarly unsettling take on figurative painting. But where Nerdrum goes for drama, Bartlett finds a way to show quiet dignity, which makes the painting both disturbing and beautiful. It doesn't resolve, but that's the point.