In this wry painting, a cow stands in front of Paulus Potter’s The Young Bull, 1647, now at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, while the human experts wonder if the cow can distinguish artifice from reality. Will she bellow a greeting, or admire Monet’s Grainstack (Snow Effect), 1891, on the wall to the right? Tansey offers this critique of the role of representation in modern art as a method of revitalizing the tradition of painting. His use of grisaille, or grey monochrome, relates to the tradition of academic painting but also to his job as an illustrator for The New York Times. Such strategies of appropriation define much of the art of the 1980s in New York, where Tansey still works.

• Exhibition History

  Fort Lauderdale Museum of the Arts. "New Narrative Painting: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 6–26, 1984, no. 22.
  
  Mexico City. Museo Rufino Tamayo. "New Narrative Paintings: Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November–December 1984, no. 25.
  
  Kunsthalle Basel. "Mark Tansey," April 29–May 30, 1990.
  
  Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Mark Tansey," June 17–August 29, 1993.

• Timeline of Art History (2000–present)
  Timelines

  The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present
• MetPublications
  Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1987–1988 (1988)