Online Art Dealer Offers Print Featuring Golden Age Heroes

[the blob]

Somehow I am on the daily email distribution list for an online art dealer called Artspace (FWIW I have no business relationship whatsoever with the company). I usually take only a casual glance at their offerings, but this one - for obvious reasons - really grabbed my attention:

 

 

Here's what Artspace says about it:

 

About the Work

 

This print by artist duo McDermott and McGough appropriates the imagery of post-war comic books to mock traditional notions of masculinity. Tiny superheroes come to the rescue as a dandified young man in a tuxedo jacket and striped boxers irons his pants. This playfully subversive image juxtaposes mundane reality with heroic masculine fantasies, toying not only with retro imagery, but with present-day delusions.

 

About the Artist

 

McDermott and McGough are multimedia artists known for their nostalgic obsession with by-gone eras. The duo met in New York in the 1980s, where they became known for their eccentric blending of art, fantasy, and daily life. McDermott and McGough immersed themselves in the Victorian era, dressing as Edwardian dandies, reading by candlelight, and living according to the tastes and technological limitations of the late nineteenth century.

 

Artistic polymaths, MCDermott and McGough have faithfully reproduced nineteenth-century daguerreotypes, Victorian silhouette paintings, depression-era movies, and midcentury comics and advertisements. Their tongue-in-cheek images of 1950s suburbia often include homoerotic subtexts, poking fun at the conservative values of the time. Their work is at once nostalgic and ironic, often mocking the illusory past while reveling in it. MCDermott and McGough’s work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. In 1997, their work was featured in a mid-career retrospective at the Provincial Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Oostende, Belgium.

 

This piece looks like it's designed to elicit a variety of different responses in response to the question, "What's going on here?", and it'd be neat to hear your thoughts and reactions. The size of the print is 20" x 24", and the price is $350 unframed, $550 framed.

 

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

[chrisco37]

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

 

 

If they were giving it away free at a con, I wouldn't pick one up.

[Dr. Balls]

1. This is utter wank.

 

2. Lichtenstein was a thieving shlt.

 

3. My masculine fantasies do not usually feature any of the things featured in this "work of art."

 

4. This is the second emperors new clothes art thread this week .

 

5. Did I already mention that this is utter wank?

 

+1

 

I was severely disappointed when I discovered what he had done, as I really idolized his pop-art style in high school and college. I use his lifting of that work in my Ethics class.

 

 

I know, right? Some people still don't believe it.

 

Well, in Lichtenstein's defense, these two clowns who made this joke of a print couldn't be troubled to recreate the artwork, they just slapped it on there like a fifth grader making a decoupage.

 

At least Roy took the time to redraw what he was stealing.

[the blob]

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

 

 

If they were giving it away free at a con, I wouldn't pick one up.

 

I would, mainly because it's a decent size and the back of it is bound to be white, so I could paint on the back of it or my son could.

 

Funny story, I used to live in the same apartment building as the artist Peter Maxx. In the mid-70's he had a ton of extra black and white posters for some of his shows, the kind that used to get pasted up on any wall you could find in the city. It would be an advertisement for his show with a balck and white illustration, etc. They were extras and he'd periodically chuck them and my father would bring them to us. The backs of those were used by my brother and I for years as large painting canvases, drawing paper, etc. They were on a nice heavy stock, almost card stock.

 

I cannot fathom that these are worth less than $100 a pop now and probably substantially more. We went through HUNDREDS of them over the years.

[Dr. Balls]

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

 

 

If they were giving it away free at a con, I wouldn't pick one up.

 

I would, mainly because it's a decent size and the back of it is bound to be white, so I could paint on the back of it or my son could.

 

Funny story, I used to live in the same apartment building as the artist Peter Maxx. In the mid-70's he had a ton of extra black and white posters for some of his shows, the kind that used to get pasted up on any wall you could find in the city. It would be an advertisement for his show with a balck and white illustration, etc. They were extras and he'd periodically chuck them and my father would bring them to us. The backs of those were used by my brother and I for years as large painting canvases, drawing paper, etc. They were on a nice heavy stock, almost card stock.

 

I cannot fathom that these are worth less than $100 a pop now and probably substantially more. We went through HUNDREDS of them over the years.

 

That is a cool story, bro.

[Ken Aldred]

I'd been reading comics for years before I saw any of Lichtenstein's work.  I was completely underwhelmed by it, how tenth rate it looked in comparison to the real comics panels and art I was accustomed to.   I suppose that even as a kid I was either an art snob in reverse or maybe simply perceptive enough to see through the B.S. hyperbole.

[DiceX]

I wonder how this print would do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can we go lenticular so when you wiggle it you can really see Greggy work that iron?

 

I'll buy THAT for a dollar!

 

 

 

[bug33fouf]

I'll give u five bucks for it

 

I have a spot i'n my bathroom for it .

[the blob]

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

 

 

If they were giving it away free at a con, I wouldn't pick one up.

 

I would, mainly because it's a decent size and the back of it is bound to be white, so I could paint on the back of it or my son could.

 

Funny story, I used to live in the same apartment building as the artist Peter Maxx. In the mid-70's he had a ton of extra black and white posters for some of his shows, the kind that used to get pasted up on any wall you could find in the city. It would be an advertisement for his show with a balck and white illustration, etc. They were extras and he'd periodically chuck them and my father would bring them to us. The backs of those were used by my brother and I for years as large painting canvases, drawing paper, etc. They were on a nice heavy stock, almost card stock.

 

I cannot fathom that these are worth less than $100 a pop now and probably substantially more. We went through HUNDREDS of them over the years.

 

That is a cool story, bro.

 

When I told my wife that story after she had just conned her way into an event where Max was pimping his 5 and six figure paintings her head almost exploded as visions of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars worth of vintage merchandise (well, it's vintage now, it wasn't then) went up in smoke. I also inherited a big bucket of used paint brushes from him in the early 90's, half of which were destroyed by a cousin who was living with my folks who was going to art school, but didn't think it was worth the bother to actually clean one's (or someone else's) brushes when one was done using them. Same thing happened to her head when I told her how I was standing in front of the rack full of WD 1s one day and decided to pass because it was just another zombie comic and a B&W one at that! If you haven't figured it out, we could use the dough right now!

[Dr. Balls]

I also inherited a big bucket of used paint brushes from him in the early 90's.

 

That has nothing to do with dough - that's historic. At least for an artist. To have one of the tools an artist of that magnitude used to create his work? Man, that's powerful stuff right there.

[Tomega]

Anybody who writes like below is a total tool -

 

to mock traditional notions of masculinity.

dandified young man

playfully subversive image juxtaposes mundane reality with heroic masculine fantasies, toying not only with retro imagery, but with present-day delusions.

 

McDermott and McGough immersed themselves in the Victorian era, dressing as Edwardian dandies, reading by candlelight, and living according to the tastes and technological limitations of the late nineteenth century.

 

Artistic polymaths,

Their tongue-in-cheek images of 1950s suburbia often include homoerotic subtexts, poking fun at the conservative values of the time.

Their work is at once nostalgic and ironic, often mocking the illusory past while reveling in it.

 

 

I almost think this has to be a joke.

[Mephisto]

Also if they wanted to upset the masculinity ideal, they could have had Captain Marvel Jr. flying out of the dude's groin.

 

No way, Captain Marvel already looks like he is carrying a huge load.

[chrisco37]

I cannot fathom why anyone would pay $350 for that. $350 used to actually get you a nice piece of OA and can get you a pretty nice actual golden age comic!

 

 

If they were giving it away free at a con, I wouldn't pick one up.

 

I would, mainly because it's a decent size and the back of it is bound to be white, so I could paint on the back of it or my son could.

 

Funny story, I used to live in the same apartment building as the artist Peter Maxx. In the mid-70's he had a ton of extra black and white posters for some of his shows, the kind that used to get pasted up on any wall you could find in the city. It would be an advertisement for his show with a balck and white illustration, etc. They were extras and he'd periodically chuck them and my father would bring them to us. The backs of those were used by my brother and I for years as large painting canvases, drawing paper, etc. They were on a nice heavy stock, almost card stock.

 

I cannot fathom that these are worth less than $100 a pop now and probably substantially more. We went through HUNDREDS of them over the years.

 

That is a cool story, bro.

 

When I told my wife that story after she had just conned her way into an event where Max was pimping his 5 and six figure paintings her head almost exploded as visions of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars worth of vintage merchandise (well, it's vintage now, it wasn't then) went up in smoke. I also inherited a big bucket of used paint brushes from him in the early 90's, half of which were destroyed by a cousin who was living with my folks who was going to art school, but didn't think it was worth the bother to actually clean one's (or someone else's) brushes when one was done using them. Same thing happened to her head when I told her how I was standing in front of the rack full of WD 1s one day and decided to pass because it was just another zombie comic and a B&W one at that! If you haven't figured it out, we could use the dough right now!

 

That is a cool story. My dad owns a Peter Max original painting.