You mean you're actually Fido?
Il Dottore Fidelio Noboddio
On a Republican, here's one -
The Getty on Jacques Louis David
More, from Artcyclopedia
Death of Marat
still looking for the one with the horse... oh, yeah, and Napoleon -
Napoleon at the Pass of St. Bernard
No sillys, my name is not Fido. It's John something. My rock's real name, if you must know, was Poochie.
Oy, one of my first friends ever, back when I was eight in NY living with my parents in a six story apt building at some sort of apex of the Henry Hudson Parkway, was named Poochie.
Alas, she wasn't that much of a friend, I only met her a few times (looking back, let me guess she didn't go to St. Gabriel's.....)
So, now, your DOG STONE is unveiled....
not only that, I remembered the truth, her name was Pooky.
Poochie was not a dog; he was my pet rock. Hmmm, Pookie. That's a good name for my next rock. Much better than Rocko.
I'm not sure an artist who supported Napoleon could be a Republican unless one is comparing George Bush to the little tyrant.
Look at the Getty link, Glight, he was a key artist for the Republic... whatever he did later.
I guess one could call a "court painter" a conservative artist in the framework of a monarchy or other despotic form of government including one that calls itself a "Republic" -- I think it's telling that it also works in communism and facism to be paid and controlled by the state as well. I'm not sure that kickycan wasn't concerned more with contemporary American artists. Of course, David painted the magnificent "Napoleon Crowned Emperor" which is at the Louvre -- standing it front of that painting is an overwhelming experience.
There are no realistic or objectived artists today who can come close to David's purety of image -- I love getting close to his paintings just to marvel at the detail (when, in fact, it is mostly suggestive detail that fools the eye).
I can't remember if Andrew Wyeth was liberal or conservative.
I infer that David painted in an opportunistic way, but he didn't only paint the Napoleon on a horse piece. Many, many, many, are opportunists. Some close to home.
Court painters may have felt like they were one level above the court jester.
Remember the court jester was the only one who could tell the truth to the king, because he was considered a fool and nobody took him seriously.
Right, and the court painter was usually lying about the subject's importance and what they actually looked like. Perhaps typical of a Republican?
(At least the Republican women I know have had their faces lifted up to the sky).
republican artists
I just found this Republican Artists thread today. Sorry it is over a month since the last post. Edward Hopper was a Republican. Hated FDR, the works. Some of his friends from that period were Republican as well but I can't remember any names right now. Thomas Hart Benton might have been as well judging from his art.
Check out Gail Levin's bio on Hopper for more info.
I think Wyeth may have been conservative. Jamie seems to be.
Of course, being a Republican in THOSE days is not quite the same thing as being one now.
republican artists
The same could be said for Democrats don't you think?
From what's been written, Hopper opposed FDR's social/works programs and the amount of tax money being used to try to pull the country out of the Depression. He didn't like the WPA, etc. To guess what Hopper's political views would be today is obviously pointless. The thread started trying to find well-known artists that are/were Republican.
It COULD be that Hopper was opposed to FDR's social works/WPA programs because they supported mainly the works of abstract expressionists. This was a time when Hopper's and Benton's representationalism was out of favor. I wonder if Benton and his most famous, and abstract expressionist, student, Pollock (a beneficiary of the WPA, I think), ever had "words" on this topic.
hopper
I don't think that's why Hopper opposed FDR since Hopper made more money on his art during the Depression than at any other point in his career. That's why he had the luxury of poo-pooing the WPA- he didn't need their paycheck. Plus you can't really say that Pollock and Guston and the other Ab-Ex artists that eventually dominated American art in the late 40s/early 50s were more in vogue during the Depression/WWII-era than Hopper and Benton. History doesn't support that. Pollock and his crew weren't really pure abstract artists at the time. Their time came 10 years later once all of these Ab-Ex people had abandoned their lame version of surrealism for pure abstraction and started posing for Life magazine. Guston was painting work-for-hire murals and putting his spin on Cubism and Surrealism in the 30s and 40s. Pollock was still reading philosophy and wondering what he was going to do when he grew up. Barnett Newman was still a surrealist. Hopper, along with the rest of the art world, could have cared less who they were at the time.
There was an exhibition of Guston's work at the Royal Academy a while ago - I hated it! anyone like his work?
Although there was a senator curiously sharing the name of Thomas Hart Benton who was a Jeffersonian Democrat from Missouri, the artist Thomas Hart Benton was considered reactionary and distinctly not conservative or Republican because of including such things as the Klu Klux Klan in his murals which riled up the Hoosier Republicans (they later repented).
