For two decades, Tim Doud has been creating his Rodney paintings, bringing his forceful gaze to bear on his equally present model, who is often draped in materials and objects that force the viewer to confront cultural display rather than likeness. As Doud’s spouse, cultural theorist Edward Ingebretsen, has noted of this series, “one remembers that on bodies and fashion hang profiling.. . . We are as we dress, for better or worse.” Doud, who has been teaching at American University since 2003, made this portrait in Washington, D.C. He explains that the referents in American Prize mix high and low culture: “when I look at the painting, I think Kentucky Derby; someone else may think high fashion or maybe Grey Gardens. It’s an all-American painting.”