Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Flash

Threat. Blunt, unthinking menace. That's what's conveyed in the painting above. It's called "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?" And yes, I fear it is.

The painter is Rosalyn Drexler, part of the American pop art explosion of the sixties. But that's just a vague grouping, not who she is. Not all her work is as ominous as this one, but it's powerful. For the most part she keeps backgrounds simple. Maybe just a color, although it will be a dominant color. The emphasis is on the foreground. On the struggle.

2 comments:

susan said...

Ah yes, the struggle continues but my concern these days is how it's being directed and by whom. Doesn't it seem as though Huxley and Orwell were both right? First the drugs and entertainment and then the boot. One of my favourite contemporary American philosophers was Joe Bageant (I may have mentioned him to you previously) - I must say was because he died in 2010 but not before leaving a remarkable body of work about class struggle rather than the dross of the social justice movement that's being foisted on us today. America: Why R Your Peeps So Dum? was one of his last.

You definitely found an interesting piece by Rosalyn Dexter and, yes, her work is powerful.

Ben said...

Oh, Huxley (either Thomas or Aldous) and Orwell always have things to say to us. But really I don't think anyone is directing anything. Or to put it another way, there are conspiracies going on everywhere, which is why I try not to use "conspiracy theory" as a blanket pejorative. But no one conspiracy is the final determining factor. For better and for worse there's always a chance of someone or something else redirecting things.

Yes, Drexler's work has remained vital for decades. I confess I haven't read any of her fiction yet.