The famous Mad Magazine characters inspire this painting’s title. It depicts two characters, dressed in coats and hats, which would have been fashionable in the 1950s, sitting on a winged...
The famous Mad Magazine characters inspire this painting’s title. It depicts two characters, dressed in coats and hats, which would have been fashionable in the 1950s, sitting on a winged golden lion, as if from some kind of crest in a flag. It’s reminiscent of the Winged Lion of Venice, an imperial city that once dominated the world. At first glance they seem to be sharing a cigarette and having a friendly conversation. Only at upon closer inspection do we see that they are threatening each other with a knife and a gun.
Throughout the Cold War, the world found itself in a precarious equilibrium threatened mutual destruction: each side created propaganda (stories) that were defined as much by the values one attributed to oneself as by the vileness that was attributed to the other. Umberto Eco tells a story of a New York taxi driver who reacts with incredulity after Eco insures him that Italy indeed doesn’t have any arch enemies in the world- your enemies define you more then your intrinsic values.
