This amazing painting featuring a group of seven of the most well-known Fast Food Mascots at a funeral was spotted by me at an arts and crafts street fair in Chicago. They are clearly serving as pallbearers and you can see that the coffin says “Monsanto,” the notorious chemical company. But, what does it all mean? The painting is clearly mounted in an up-cycled window frame, and the rows of towering palm trees in the background indicates that the location is southern California. I neglected to note the artist’s name, so if anyone has a clue as to who painted this, and what it is all about, please leave that information in the comments! Thank you, Drive Through!
The title of this work, One Third of a Nation (1939) references President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 inaugural address in which he proclaimed, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” One Third of a Nation is also the title of Arthur Arent’s1938 play, which emphasized the plight of the poor and was funded by the WPA’s Federal Theater Project. In this painting, O. Louis Guglielmi (1906 – 1956) draws attention to the horrid living conditions during the Great Depression. The forms in the foreground resemble coffins, and subsequently suggest a similar reading of the brick tenements behind them. The floral wreath adorning the building’s cornice reinforces this metaphor.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Here’s something else you need to make sure your Halloween party spread is scary delicious: a Coffin Shaped Dip Bowl complete with little Vampire in it and Tombstone-topped spreader with a bat on it! Very Scary!
Features:
Ceramic dip bowl with lid shaped like Dracula’s coffin
Spreader shaped like a tombstone and bat
Size (bowl): 6″ x 3-1/2″ x 3″
Size (spreader): 1″ x 4-1/4″ x 1/2″
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If you like Coca Cola and World Politics and have a twisted sense of humor, then UNIX Gallery in Chelsea is currently hosting an exhibit you will enjoy. Always Shameless, an exhibition of new work by Spanish artist Eugenio Merino is instantly polarizing for its depiction of life-sized Political Leaders including Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Il, Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush displayed in Coca Cola Refrigerator Coffins. Surely, this visual alone will inspire hours of lively discourse.
