McDermott & McGough: Because Of Him

McDermott & McGough... Late Night #3: Lizabeth Scott, 1967 (2007, Oil on linen). From the exhibition McDermott & McGough: Because Of Him at Cheim & Read. "...The new exhibition includes several photo-realist paintings of carefully selected movie scenes in which a dramatically framed actress is central. The paintings are composed of two separate scenes from different movies, one black-and-white and one color, stacked horizontally so that one scene seems to bear weight upon the other and a new relationship or narrative is formed. The strong female protagonist of each frame conveys the scenes' emotional impact, and the inevitable nostalgia of McDermott & McGough's selected imagery lends a sense of cool introspection. The sensibility of the large scale, horizontally-composed paintings are echoed in a series of eight photo-realist paintings of 1960s era televisions, the distinctly boxy but individually unique exteriors framing single black-and-white scenes, the actresses' expressive faces filling the screen."