Bizarre 1928

Here's Allen Tucker's painting, made with oil on canvas. The woman, with her hands clasped behind her on the chair, looks back at us almost conspiratorially. I can imagine the act of painting her, how it must have been for Tucker, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I am so into her patterned top, orange and black shapes floating against each other! You can really see how the different colors and textures shape our experience, and how they contribute to the emotional resonance. I think of other figurative painters - Alice Neel comes to mind - and the conversation that's been going on for a century. This painting is like a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings. It inspires creativity.