Sold at Auction: Barbara Sandler

Barbara Sandler uses paint, found 19th- and early-20th-century photographs, and printed words to depict athletic, traditionally masculine men (including sailors, postal workers, gentlemen) in formal poses. With their stylized depictions, mostly muted palettes, and leathery quality owing to the use of oil paint on primed paper, the collages resemble old postcards and posters. Sandler has been criticized as anti-feminist for glorifying the iconography of masculinity, but her subject choice stems more from a personal interest. She explains, “I love the confrontational stare of a man stopped in time, looking out from an old photograph [saying,] ‘Why should this be the end of me? Give me another go-around, re-invent me.’”