Frank Lloyd Wright says…Tough Times
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi ; Richard Davis; Editions Alecto
Description
Subject Matter:
Like many of his contemporaries, Paolozzi used new printing techniques as a way to engage with modern mass media's new visual culture. At the same time, the photomechanical process made the work look mechanically manufactured rather than hand-made, in the traditional artistic sense. Therefore, after he modified, transformed, and assembled the source image(s), the medium would allow for a more uniform final image.
This print is one of a large series of 50 prints included in the 1970 portfolio, which was a second edition of an earlier group of slightly-larger prints titled "Moonstrips Empire News." While the first series was strictly produced as screenprints, this second series "General Dynamic F.U.N." includes works of photolithography, like this one. The themes seen in this portfolio are different in style and subject matter from other Pop works of the period, but engage with the images of a modern mass media, looking beyond just advertising and publicity images. Likewise, the title of the portfolio alludes to the General Dynamics Corporation, who was the manufacturer of the F-111 fighter used during the Vietnam War—the same one referenced in James Rosenquist monumental painting "F-111."
This print references the iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright but does not show the man or any of his buildings in the images, though the modernist oven at the bottom right would fit in one of Wright's domestic spaces. Instead, Paolozzi's satirical collage of images and text create a view of American consumerism and its uncertain future, referenced in the small children depicted in the scenes. Likewise, there is a juxtaposition of image/advertising, in the scenes of putting on make-up, and the messy business of industrial production, in the manufacturing scene. Also, the binality of consumerism is highlighted in the image of people waiting in line.
Physical Description:
This print is separated into four horizontal registers of images and text, all printed in pink and black. At the top there is text that reads "COLOR AND ORGANIC / Permanent Institution.. Riding the Rolls. Reward of the Oppressed.. Whither?.. Traitors to France.. Toward Insurrection.. New Semester.. Frank Lloyd Wright Says.. Tough Times.." Below is a series of photographs of a man in a suit putting make-up on a woman with bare sholders and her hair pulled back. The second register has one large image of two men at a factory, manufacturing children's dolls. Below that, there is one cropped scene of people of various ages standing in line. The bottom row of images includes four images on the left, of a man taking photographs of a girl and a puppy in a bubble bath and three images on the right of an oven, open, closed and with someone putting steaks inside.
Usage Rights:
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