Billy
/Steven Schatz
2001
American, b. 1943
Oil on canvas
Mayfaire-by-the-Lake 2004 Museum Purchase through the General Acquisition Fund
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2004.10.1
Who is Billy? What experiences has he had? What do his eyes tell you? Or his posture? Or how does the way the portrait is lit or set against a loosely-painted dark backdrop impact your sense of him emotionally?
While Schatz based this image on a real sitter in his studio — Billy, the boyfriend of one of the artist’s models — as this painting’s viewer, you are left to conjure the rest of Billy’s tale.