In the mid-1980s I saw the painting *Bad Boy* by Eric Fischl and felt the powerful combination of shock and recognition. I had never seen an image like this before—one that was so transgressive and yet thoroughly mundane. Nor had I come upon a picture that was such a compressed and elegant depiction of the psychological complexities involved in the act of looking. In the painting the viewer is placed in a suburban bedroom behind an adolescent boy who sneaks his hand into the purse of a woman who is laying naked on the bed in front of him with her legs wide apart as she trims her toenails. While the picture is utterly direct, the narrative remains ambiguous—available to the viewers’ speculations and projections. What is the relationship between the boy and the woman? Is he looking at her sexually or just keeping an eye on her so he doesn’t get caught red-handed? And what about the meaning of the purse, the light, the toes, and the woman’s indifference?…