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The most obvious divergence from the Cigar Bar is the placement of the drink (in relation to the customer): here it is much closer to the lips of the drinker, who appears to have just taken a sip. Although the set of traits exhibited by the gentleman — being mysterious, plunged in thought and lonely — recurs here too, the woman shows signs of disappointment, wisdom and life experience. These additional qualities demystify the figure considerably, but add a touch of charm and languorous elegance that the man, so it would seem, would never be able to grasp. This a richer, more sensual and humane painting; the counterpart is crisper and more energetic. Perhaps the best words for a comparison would be simply feminine versus masculine.

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The glasses and the bottles assume symbolical meaning, both echoing and implying the woman’s fragility. There are countless imaginable scenarios: she may be nervously waiting for someone who will never arrive — a situation that could break her heart — and each glass and bottle may seem to clink and tremble along with her inner self. The sheer number of glass objects further accentuate her fragility (both physical and emotional). Her body’s shape resembles a slender champagne glass, or a bottle; overall, the glass intensifies the mood and enriches it with an understated dimension of precipice, danger and risk.

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Finally, one has to wonder where is the barman, in both paintings. After all a bar is a place where people congregate for the sake of spending time together and enjoying each other’s company. Even if someone prefers to remain in total solitude (in a venue meant to be crowded), there is always the barman somewhere around, the ubiquitous steward who traditionally absorbs some of the drinkers’ gloom. We witness here an artificial situation where no one except the principle person is visible: this prompts to guess that something has happened, something serious and unexpected, or at least about to happen. Once again, in these two bestselling paintings Brent Lynch probed into the postmodernist psyche, expressing some of its collective fears and anxieties.

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The painting immediately surprises the viewer: showing a man’s back, it presents an anti-portrait of a sort, alienating the audience. Alienation as a modern (or perhaps post-modern) term informs the piece thematically; we, as the audience, are given the cold shoulder and the smoker appears to have been treated similarly. He makes an impression of a mysterious, plunged in thought and above all lonely man. Curiously, he looks away from the outstretched hand that holds the drink, as if the hand was an alien organ that wants to bring him harm. Arguably, this compositional choice by the artist injects the motif of alcoholism and personal struggle with the disease.

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The punch of the piece ensues from the contrast of the black wearing cool dandy having a smoke and a martini with the imposing red rectangle facing the man. It’s unclear what it means, whether it is a mirror reflecting the murky interior (although a mirror would have probably shown the sitter’s face) or an abstract painting. The artist sneaks in an irony by the color juxtaposition : Is the man really that cool and confident? Is he impervious to desire and impulse that the color red is known to signify? Could he in fact be an emotional wreck, posing and trying to conceal his inner state by fashionable clothing? All these questions are left hanging in the air, intensifying the general mood of smoky mystery.

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But the most distressing feature in this painting is the use of shade and light. These are sharp and unstable, sometimes outright exaggerated. For instance the hat casts a disturbing shadow on the man’s back of the head, as if mocking the audience: we can’t see the face — but we can’t see the back either. His right leg creates a long shadow that balances the left arm but, also parodies it, first by being intangible and second by the sharp slanting angle. All these features and questions combined prompt to question the protagonist, the main problem remaining — does he question himself?