"Formal or informal, the plasticity of the work denotes the abstract figurative tension..." -Mike the TV
The episode "Painted Windows" has always been a personal favourite, being as rich as it is in references to art- just the kind of thing an art history major like myself goes nuts over. "Now Blue," you might say to yourself, "surely there must be tons and tons of art references in that episode that the average viewer can't appreciate, some of which are probably hilarious!" Indeed there are, my friend! I thought it'd be interesting if I wrote a guide of sorts to help people out in that department. 'Cause I'm a geek that way. For each reference, the scene from the episode is on the left, and the real-life artwork is on the right. The really interesting thing about the art that was chosen for this episode, is that almost all of these artists either had some sort of psychological problems, or were associated with art movements that emphasized the unreal and imagination. The guys at Mainframe really did their homework. |
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(Click on each picture to see a larger version) Title: The Scream Artist, Date: Edvard Munch, 1893 Special Note: Munch's explorations of anguish were one of the biggest influences on German Expressionist painting. He is famous for his paintings depicting intense psychological and emotional themes such as misery and death. The Scream is known for its depiction of 'existential angst', and of psychological fear and isolation. Quite a pleasant piece. |
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Title: M-maybe He Became Ill...(not this specific artwork, but this is a good example) Artist, Date: Roy Lichtenstein, 1965 Special Note: Lichtenstein was a Pop artist, which was a movement that took much of its inspiration from (of course) pop culture. He appropriated images from comic books and reproduced them on a large scale, using the same printing techniques (little coloured dots called Ben-Day dots). His artwork has a strong element of humour and irony. I like how the binome trapped in the painting expresses himself through speech bubbles- it's a nice touch. |
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Title: Mona Lisa Artist, Date: Leonardo Da Vinci, 1503-6 Special Note: Arguably the best known painting in the world, the Mona Lisa's true identity is unknown, which adds to her mystery. One of her most famous characteristics is that her eyes appear to 'move', and follow you as you move in front of the painting. Another mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa is that no one knows really why she is smiling. It was rumoured that Da Vinci had to hire entertainers to keep the slightly amused look on her face. Notice that Hex asks the Binome guard stuck in the picture, "What are *you* smiling about?" |
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Title: Sunflowers Artist, Date: Vincent Van Gogh, 1888 Special Note: Hexadecimal's name is signed on the Tor the same way Van Gogh wrote his own name. Van Gogh was a self-taught painter who was sometimes so into his work he'd apply the paint directly with his fingers. He also never sold a painting in his lifetime. He was always plagued by an eccentric personality and unstable moods, finally being committed to hospital in 1889 for his psychotic episodes. Remind you of anyone? |
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Title: The Son of Man Artist, Date: Rene Magritte, 1964 Special Note: Magritte was a member of the Surrealist movement, which aimed to transcend the limits of the mind and of reality, by depicting things that were completely outside of reason. That's just what Magritte did, and in his artwork things are usually not as they seem. He has said of this piece, "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see." |
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Title: Water lilies Artist, Date: Claude Monet, 1906 Special Note: Monet is associated with Impressionism- this art style emphasized creating an 'impression' of a scene with loose brushstrokes, and observation of the changing qualities of light. Monet had been one of the foremost Impressionists, but later in life retired to his country home to paint the lilies in his pond. Notice another work of his, "Bridge at Argenteuil" (1874) on the wall behind Dot. |
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Title: The Persistence of Memory Artist, Date: Salvador Dali, 1931 Special Note: Dali was a Surrealist, like Magritte. Most of his work depicts imaginative, bizarre scenes that he claimed came out of his subconscious. This piece on the right depicts his interpretation of the disintegration of humanity and of time. He was a pretty morbid guy. Dali was partly influenced by Renaissance art; The skull is a popular motif in Renaissance paintings, and usually represents a Memento Mori (reminder of Death). |
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Title: The Thinker Artist, Date: Auguste Rodin, 1880 Also: Joan Miro (on the building in the background) Special Note: Rodin was working at the end of Romanticism and the beginning of Modernism. He loved combining very emotional subjects with strong physical figures in his art, and originally meant this sculpture to represent Dante pondering his Divine Comedy. The figure is deep in thought, and is supposed to be struggling with powerful internal emotions. Joan Miro was a Surrealist painter who drew his subject matter from the realms of memory, imagination and fantasy, in an effort to celebrate the irrational and emotional aspects of life. He would compose abstracted scenes of whimsical colours and shapes, which he called his 'visions'. |
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Title: Twenty Marilyns Artist, Date: Andy Warhol, 1962 Special Note: Warhol was a Pop artist who favoured the use of mass-production techniques to subvert the expectations of "real" art. He was kind of a strange man and fancied himself a 'machine,' even calling his studio the Factory. Warhol only did Marilyn's faces after her death- is it interesting that Hex chose that same motif for Dot, or am I reading too much into this? |
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Title: Friends Artist, Date: Keith Haring, 1985 (?) Special Note: Keith Haring got his start in New York in the 1980's, by making anonymous chalk drawings on subway station walls. He was closely associated with graffiti art, but also used other materials to create his distinctive cartoony figures. He opened a store in New York City, called the Pop Shop, to sell memorabilia with his designs. Several ad campaigns in the 80's and 90's used his artwork, making it very recognizable. |
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Title: Composition With Red, Yellow and Blue (or many of his other works) Artist, Date: Piet Mondrian, 1921 Special Note: Mondrian was a neo-Plasticist (this is a rigid form of Abstract art, whose rules allow only for a canvas divided into rectangles by horizontal and vertical lines, and a very limited palette). He was also a compulsive neurotic and could never bear to see anything disordered or untidy- he became uneasy and upset if a table were not set perfectly, for instance. |
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Title: Various Artist, Date: Various Special Note: The references here are a little vague; my best guess is that all the scribblings on the walls around Mainframe refers to the graffiti art movement of the 1980's. New York at this time was the hotspot of the art world, and graffiti was a huge trend, like this wall piece by Kenny Scharf (who was known best for being inspired by pop culture and using bright colours). The problem with graffiti art was that there was no real substance to it beyond being a fad, so it died off eventually. |
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Title: The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel Artist, Date: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1511-12 Special Note: Part of an entire ceiling commissioned from Michelangelo, this artwork has a very powerful composition. It's part of a larger fresco that covers the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and here it depicts the creation of man. Adam is based on a Classical notion of the 'ideal man.' It's only fitting, I guess, that the most famous painting ever put on a ceiling be put on the roof of the Principal Office too. |
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Lost Angles ---------------- Lost Angles is a bit special because it is almost entirely in the style of Picasso. Many people know a bit about Picasso, but here's the really interesting stuff: - Picasso was fond of bullfighting, and considered the bull to be the epitome of masculinity and virility. He sometimes painted himself as a bull...and Hex also paints Bob as a bull...yeah, I think you can see where I'm going with this. - Picasso almost never painted anyone except his wives and mistresses. Whenever Picasso was in love with a woman, he painted her over and over, almost obsessively. That explains the number of times Bob's likeness appears all over Lost Angles... - Mike makes a joke about Hex being in a Blue period, in reference to Picasso's own blue period; early in his career, he painted mostly in blues and greys. (he also had a rose period. Just like it sounds, he did entirely pink paintings.) - My favourite thing in Painted Windows has to be the cubist picture of Hex kissing Bob (on the wall behind the nulls), 'cause it's such a great insight into Hex's fantasy world, dontcha think? |
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Title: L'Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France Artist, Date: Chalgrin and Blouet, 1806-36; commissioned by Napoleon Special Note: Triumphal arches date back to Roman times, when they were built by victorious generals to commemorate themselves and to lead their armies through (usually at a big fancy celebration). The arch that this is one's modelled on was built for Napoleon as a tribute to the French army, until he was sent off to a faraway island. Then it was completed a few years later. Seems to me, then, that the one in Lost Angles is probably left over from the Twin City, unless Hex built it especially for herself. |
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Hex's Lair: Self-Portraits Far Left: This is the same Picasso-esque portrait as before, in the same cubist style. The way the faces meet looks a lot like Picasso's Girl before a Mirror, 1932. Middle Left, Right, Far Right: These ones don't bring to mind any specific artworks, but the one thing they all have in common is that they're all self-portraits. In the world of art, that can sometimes be part of a journey of self-discovery for the artist, or (very often) rampant narcissism. "Well, of course the inspiration for all of my works is myself..." -Hex |
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Title: Voice of Fire Artist, Date: Barnett Newman, 1967 Special Note: The painting of the three stripes behind Hex was the subject of Canada's biggest ever art scandal, making major news in the Canadian media a few years before Painted Windows was made. in 1989, the National Gallery of Canada acquired Voice of Fire for $1.76 million. The huge price tag outraged many taxpayers, who argued that it was nothing more than three strips of paint on a huge canvas. Barnett Newman's paintings have gained more recognition and historical significance since then, however, and this artwork is now worth much more than what the gallery paid for it. I think it was included in the episode because it was in the news at the time- a little tribute to (or jab at) Canadian art. |
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Appendix: Fluxus? This reference is highly subjective, but the masks on the nulls in Lost Angles strike me as nothing short of frighteningly trippy. Besides the Cubist eyes on the masks, I just can't figure them out. Why are the nulls wearing them? But, it reminds me very much of Fluxus performance art, which was supposed to make no sense at all really. The idea was to be experimental, combine art forms, to break down walls between performer/audience and high/low culture. It happens to be one of my favourite art movements. ^^
Debatable: Enzo's falling into multiple vidwindows has been compared to David Hockney's Polaroid photocollages (e.g. Mother #1, Yorkshire Moors, August 1985 #1), but I'm not including it in with the rest because Hex didn't directly turn Enzo into an artwork. It can be argued that the connection is there, though! |
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