Backs to Watkins

WR Watkins’ nudes have great specificity — he’s as interested in capturing the face as he is in genre issues of mass, light or pose. But lately we’ve noticed a few faceless paintings in the mix. The lack of identity from behind allowed Watkins to play with more formal concerns.

For instance, these two paintings from the 1960’s seem to be about contrasting each model’s broad flat expanse of back against their dark hair and the surrounding textures.

long-haired woman sitting (back)long-haired woman sitting (back)

Posted Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 under WR Watkins, William Reginald Watkins.

One comment so far

  1. Great website, I really like the way you cross reference the models and the paintings to compare different paintings of the same model.

Leave a Reply