I renewed my membership to the SF Museum of Modern Art the other day. Well, actually about 5 months ago, but I’ve been sitting on this post a while.
They gave me a poster when I renewed my membership. I got the girl who helped me to admit that she gave me the poster because I am special (I told her to tell me that, after all), though I think they gave everyone who renewed that week a poster.
I didn’t look at the poster until I got home later that day.
It kinda freaks me out.
Country Dog Gentlemen by Roy De Forest. Satanic dogs on acid.
If somebody told me to draw satanic dogs, then asked me to draw them like they were all tripping, I don’t think I could depict that as well as this poster does.
That’s what I see, but maybe it’s just me.
It turns out this painting is by Roy De Forest, who was a professor at UC Davis from the 60’s to the 90’s. He passed away a few years ago, in 2007. He lived in Port Costa later in life, right up in the North Bay. He was a local Bay Area artist for the majority of his life, so kudos to SF MoMA for promoting the local guys.
It’s still a freaky poster though. I later saw it hanging by the entrance to the children’s education center in the museum. I wonder if this painting has inspired many nightmares?
That is a seriously freaky picture.
.-= Katie´s last blog post ..Stripping The Emperor: How Not To Write A Killer Blog Post =-.
Ha ha, you’re right – the dogs look a bit freaked on that poster! But it’s a very vital piece – i love the colours, and sometimes kids love things that are a bit scary !
.-= Martina´s last blog post ..Let your art guide you – weekly challenge =-.
@Martina, I agree, this painting is pretty vital, and pretty cool, in it’s way. My observations were somewhat tongue-in-cheek. The more I look at this image, the more I appreciate it, but my first response when I looked at this poster was “whoa – this is freaky”.
.-= Sean´s last blog post ..Back From Reality: Recompression =-.
How many dogs in that picture, anyway?
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog post ..How To Fly To The Moon In Two Easy Steps (and blogging stuff) =-.
All of them. They’re all there 😉