Raoul Middleman's 'Baltimore Babes' Exhibition at Kouros Gallery Explores Narrative Painting and Flesh

Raoul Middleman's exhibition 'Baltimore Babes' ran from March 4 to April 2, 2011 at Kouros Gallery in New York City, located at 23 East 73rd Street. The show featured paintings of women with first-name titles like Madge, Linda, Stephanie, Colleen, Tracey, Heather, and Anthea, described as politically incorrect and libidinous. Middleman, a painter and former writer, grew up in Baltimore and taught at Maryland Institute College of Art, maintaining a studio near the Copycat building. His work blends observation with imagination, rejecting formalist constraints by embracing narrative painting across genres like historical scenes, classical myths, and domestic still lifes. Influences include American realists Reginald Marsh, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Cadmus, and Paul Georges, alongside European expressive realists Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, and Lovis Corinth. The essay compares Middleman to artists like Renoir and Rembrandt, noting his focus on paint handling over poses, with flesh and clothing depicted with equal mastery. References to Willem de Kooning's maxim about oil paint and flesh are discussed, alongside Middleman's ability to individualize sitters despite dramatic themes. The exhibition title plays with the sitters' status, though the women span generations, occupations, and ethnicities, with their personalities emphasized over objectification.