{"id":674,"date":"2011-10-25T10:48:22","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T10:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674"},"modified":"2011-10-26T14:12:46","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T14:12:46","slug":"the-forbidden-pleasures-of-uh-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674","title":{"rendered":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_675\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-675\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-675\" title=\"fireplace\" src=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg 290w, https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace.jpg 516w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-675\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail from Fireplace by Lisa Yuskavage<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A recent notice in <em>The New Yorker<\/em> with a title that made me laugh\u2014Dangerous Beauty\u2014compares a new painting by Lisa Yuskavage, <em>Fireplace<\/em>, on view now at David Swirner, to a couple paintings by Manet. It&#8217;s clearly a pastiche drawing from <em>Olympia<\/em>, and it shows what appears to be a seated sex worker naked except for her ribbon choker, backed by an attendant, or partner, with a fireplace behind her roaring with warmth. The tableau is a comfy little domesticated demimonde\u2014exactly what Manet presented, with a smirk, in <em>Olympia<\/em> and <em>Dejeuner<\/em> <em>sur l\u2019herbe<\/em>, a professional sort of nudity displaced into the bourgeois parlor and picnic. What was an outrage, at the time, now looks like wicked wit. In <em>Fireplace<\/em>, with the professional <em>sangfroid<\/em> of her spread legs, this temptress is more realistic than Yuskavage&#8217;s typical virtuoso performance, yet her pout is about as menacing as the work gets. Most of her paintings strike me as an adolescent fantasy which Alberto Vargas might have taught a Japanese anime artist to do on deadline for <em>Playboy<\/em>, with Russ Meyer attached for quality control. It\u2019s caricature to mock the antiquated tropes of softcore pin-ups as a springboard to give herself license to achieve the innocently cheerful effects of light and color that actually interest her. The irony is that she needs to pretend that she\u2019s offending you with her content in order to do, with color, something that actually just cheers you up, in a way that really <em>does<\/em> move beyond the settled boundaries of taste. The way she throws inhibition to the wind here is in her handling of color, not in the choice of subject, which is pretty tame. The danger is all in the palette. If you want something genuinely nasty, turn off SafeSearch and let Google take you by the hand and show you the way.<\/p>\n<p>Critical comparisons to Vermeer are just jaw-droppingly knuckleheaded, but she isn\u2019t too far from Fragonard\u2019s coy eroticism. They both evoke sexual readiness as a career move, without investing much genuine emotion into anything but the execution of the work, which is impressive in her case (and was astonishing in Fragonard\u2019s). But she seems to be satirizing\u2014or should it be satyrizing\u2014a harmless target. Her work feels like an amiable send-up of that old bugbear, the offending \u201cmale gaze\u201d\u2014but it\u2019s the fevered stare of a 16-year-old boy circa 1967, a pimply kid who really buys into the perceptual distortions of chronic high school horniness. Everything seems unreal and weightless in Yuskavage\u2019s world. Her girly-girls are over-ripe, vacuous fantasies. Yet they\u2019re done in sickly-sweet colors that actually win you over, the more you see them\u2014partly because Yuskavage has so completely surrendered to the excesses of her tongue-in-cheek <em>kitsch<\/em>. Her light and color, not her subject, have the feel of genuinely guilty pleasures. You sense that she\u2019s giving in to the ease of her painting skills like a girl on a diet, with her bedroom door open&#8211;<em>just try to stop me!<\/em>&#8211;spooning her way through a gallon of French vanilla in a single sitting. Talk about<em><\/em> transgressive. It&#8217;s an offense to the sophistication of coolness. The way she handles color and light is assured and energizing, and yet the outcome invariably looks more animated than alive, like the fantasies she depicts. Is this anything for her to bother herself with? I think not. The market niche she\u2019s cornered probably overlaps a bit with John Currin\u2019s sales region and customer base, and it&#8217;s a lucrative one. Her paintings bring six and seven figures now. The only downside to all this is that a masterfully rendered cartoon is still just a cartoon. Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that. But it doesn\u2019t seem entirely out of line to wish for work where Yuskavage is as secretly invested in the subject as she is in the way she paints it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent notice in The New Yorker with a title that made me laugh\u2014Dangerous Beauty\u2014compares a new painting by Lisa Yuskavage, Fireplace, on view now at David Swirner, to a couple paintings by Manet. It&#8217;s clearly a pastiche drawing from Olympia, and it shows what appears to be a seated sex worker naked except for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent notice in The New Yorker with a title that made me laugh\u2014Dangerous Beauty\u2014compares a new painting by Lisa Yuskavage, Fireplace, on view now at David Swirner, to a couple paintings by Manet. It&#8217;s clearly a pastiche drawing from Olympia, and it shows what appears to be a seated sex worker naked except for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674\"},\"wordCount\":680,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/fireplace-290x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674\",\"name\":\"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/fireplace-290x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/fireplace.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/fireplace.jpg\",\"width\":\"516\",\"height\":\"532\",\"caption\":\"Detail from Fireplace by Lisa Yuskavage\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=674#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"represent\",\"description\":\"the painting life\",\"alternateName\":\"the dorsey post\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\",\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"dave dorsey\"},\"description\":\"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.daviddorsey.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent","og_description":"A recent notice in The New Yorker with a title that made me laugh\u2014Dangerous Beauty\u2014compares a new painting by Lisa Yuskavage, Fireplace, on view now at David Swirner, to a couple paintings by Manet. It&#8217;s clearly a pastiche drawing from Olympia, and it shows what appears to be a seated sex worker naked except for [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674","og_site_name":"represent","article_published_time":"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"dave dorsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"dave dorsey","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674"},"author":{"name":"dave dorsey","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"headline":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint","datePublished":"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674"},"wordCount":680,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674","name":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint - represent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace-290x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-25T10:48:22+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-26T14:12:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fireplace.jpg","width":"516","height":"532","caption":"Detail from Fireplace by Lisa Yuskavage"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=674#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The forbidden pleasures of, uh, paint"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/","name":"represent","description":"the painting life","alternateName":"the dorsey post","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57","name":"dave dorsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"dave dorsey"},"description":"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.daviddorsey.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}