Balls 2004

Lisa Yuskavage made this painting, Balls, with oil on canvas and it’s a trip! The way she handles color, it’s like she’s making a new kind of flesh, almost pearlescent. There’s a dreamy quality about the light and the soft focus. The paint looks thin, kind of scrubbed into the canvas, which gives it a hazy atmosphere. The details, like the little flowers and the beads, feel both delicate and slightly absurd. The way the beads sit on the figure’s back, they create a little map of touch, a kind of sensory landscape. Yuskavage’s paintings are like a conversation with artists like Boucher, but also totally her own thing. It’s not about one right answer, but about how art can open up different ways of feeling and seeing.