While the term “diptych” is used to describe an artwork made of two hinged or adjacent panels, Mark Tansey’s painting titled Diptych joins two images within one canvas. Working from his collection of vintage magazines, Tansey selects and combines imagery taken from photographs and illustrations to depict puzzling and impossible scenarios. This monochromatic painting was created through a subtractive process whereby the artist applies an even layer of paint to the canvas and uses a variety of tools to pull and wipe it away. The image, like an old photograph that it resembles, emerges as if from a chemical process. Tansey’s picture within a picture cleverly calls into question the reality invoked by photographic depiction.