Decline Of The Bourgeois: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Decline of the Bourgeois: Media Consumes Us Like Fire

Dick Van der Wurst on October 29, 2013

2013 • 42″ x 51″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

It is often said that people with subversive ideas are more fun than those trying to maintain the status quo. Others, whose meritless influence may be waning, long for yesteryear, bemoaning the decline of morality in America, blinded to all the social injustices and high crime rates of the “good old days.”

This imagined decline in morals often coincides with the decline in power and influence of those on top of the plutocracy. “Decline of the Bourgeois” satirizes the notion that subversive cultural influences can lead us on a path of destruction when in reality it seems the most controversial subject matter keeps the zeitgeist trending toward greater empathy and acceptance.

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Hair Sweaters and Highballs - Primavera: Relativist Pop Art Paintings by Moe Profane

Hair Sweaters and Highballs (Primavera): A Promising Sign of Spring

Dick Van der Wurst on October 20, 2013

2013 • 48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

Throughout art history, seasonal themes have evoked not only death and resurrection and pagan imagery of classical antiquity that have continued to be a part of our seasonal holidays today. I this version, I have added some personal associations born of a neighbor who welcomed spring weather with a bare hairy torso, wandering the sidewalks with a highball in his hand.

Subjective associations are highlighted as well by the rubber spring symbols at his feet.

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The Emperor Is Speaking In Tongues: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

The Emperor is Speaking in Tongues: Easy Bullshit Recognition

Dick Van der Wurst on October 19, 2013

2013 • 48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

This piece equates the pretentiousness, hypocrisy, collective denial, and hollow ostentatiousness satirized in the Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” with the phenomena of “speaking in tongues” in Christian churches. Like the townsfolk in the tale, believers play along with the pretense not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid.

Wikipedia offered some insight into the satire of the classic story, saying it:

…quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art.

Folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that “the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment”, and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as “a successful enchantment”.

This could be a satire of modern art and consumerism in general. We all tend to suspend disbelief when we begin to accept the artificial worth of objects that have no intrinsic value…much like we have to be taught to appreciate the power of symbolic meaning in general or any specific religious doctrine.

The story and this piece represent a situation where “no one believes, but everyone believes that everyone else believes.”

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Middle Path and Pickled Peppers: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Middle Path and Pickled Peppers: Remarkable Moderation, Avoiding Extremes

Dick Van der Wurst on October 5, 2013

2013 • 33″ x 42.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

This is a second attempt at portraying the Buddha bottling up the extremes of good and evil, maintaining The Middle Way:

The Middle Way…implies a balanced approach to life and the regulation of one’s impulses and behavior, close to Aristotle’s idea of the “golden mean” whereby “every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.

I added alliteration and food reference to make it even more fun. Incorporating the pepper imagery with the Buddha allow me to make this piece look like a product label or old sign graphic. Medium strength peppers reference the spicing up life with just a little kick but not enough to make your scalp sweat.

Next up perhaps is a piece about Aristotle and The Golden Mean:

In philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. For example courage, a virtue, if taken to excess would manifest as recklessness and if deficient as cowardice.

Socrates teaches that a man “must know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible”.

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