I mean, I do think that any image of a clothed man positioned above and looking at a reclining nude woman has a certain amount of content implied–whether the image is antique, baroque, modern or postmodern. I do agree totally that Jamie Adams’ painting is the more subtle–or at least has a sweeter, more awkward subtle tension to it. My immediate assumption about the Adams painting was that it was the hipster, ironic, ‘look my light-hearted disdain for my pop culture crushes is way more feigned than yours is…” model of painting. It was only when the two images randomly came up next to each other on my computer I noticed that in spite of the obvious similarities between the form and the subject, there is a real difference of intent. Benton’s painting is the one that embodies all those qualities–irony, cynicism, lack of seriousness–that one is trained to immediately associate with contemporary painting. Persphone led me to re-think my first take on jeanibed.

as to how they relate to the benton, well, i guess i feel like “the form is content” concept might cause a mis-read here. i may be wrong, but i really feel a totally different kind of intent behind the adams work than i get from benton. what i mean here is that it seems like the benton works carry less content in their making than adams works do. i’m open to instruction here…