Superman’s Dead 2012

This is “Superman’s Dead” by Dave Macdowell, painted sometime in the 20th century. Macdowell has a thing for clean lines and bold color. He uses them to create these emotionally charged images. Look at the way the red background throws the whole figure into high relief. It’s almost like she's glowing. The paint application is smooth, concealing the artist’s hand. This gives it a kind of comic book flatness, which seems so right given the subject matter. The way Macdowell uses these stylized tears is just perfect. They run like glass down her face, but it’s the slightly smudged lipstick that really gets me. It’s a brilliant detail that really hits home. I keep thinking about Alex Katz when I look at Macdowell's work. Both are able to make these incredibly simple, direct images that somehow manage to be deeply affecting. Art, like life, is often at its best when it embraces the messiness of emotion.