Untitled 

Craig Mullins made this untitled drawing with graphite on paper sometime after 1964. You can see the shadow obscuring the face of the figure; it is difficult to read the emotion or intention of the person depicted, raising interesting questions about identity and representation. In western art traditions, the male nude has often been associated with power, heroism, and classical ideals of beauty, and this history informs the way we understand images such as this. In 20th and 21st century America, institutions such as art schools and life-drawing classes perpetuate and sometimes challenge the idea of what the body can mean. The visual codes of this drawing, such as the obscuring shadow, speak to the complicated politics of imagery and the difficulty of truly knowing the subject depicted. It is up to those of us looking at art to ask questions about its social function and historical meaning, using all the resources at our disposal.