GARY HALLGREN (1945-)
Fritzi Ritz painting: “LES
DEMOISELLES de NANCY.”
Pablo
Picasso’s 1907 classic “Les
Demoiselles de Avignon” hangs in the
Museum of Modern Art and is this unavailable, even
if you could afford it. But you probably can afford
this remarkable Gary Hallgren version, with the
usually idealized visage of Nancy depicted in a
disconcertingly confrontational manner, lacking any
conventional femininity or vestige
of cuteness. Like Picasso’s immortal women of the
evening, the Nancy variants appear slightly
menacing, rendered with angular and disjointed body
shapes. If you harbor even slight guilt feelings
about loving Nancy, thinking her somehow unhip and déclassé,
toss those misplaced feelings aside: even your
snooty intellectual friends will respect this
masterpiece when they view it hung unashamedly on
your wall.
Acrylic
painting on illustration board, shrink-wrapped
against ¼-inch foam board. Painted in August 2015.
Dimensions 15 x 20 inches. Signed by the artist.
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About the
artist: Gary Hallgren’s illustrations have
appeared in The New York Times,
MAD, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment
Weekly, and National Lampoon (his
Pinocchio cover for the Lampoon is an all-time
classic). And he illustrated all of the best-selling
books by Dr. Mehmet Oz. But he's probably best known
as a key member of the infamous “Air Pirates.”
Hallgren teamed with Dan O'Neill,
Ted Richards, Bobby London, and Shary Flenniken to
produce two notorious issues of Air Pirates
Funnies, which contained X-rated
parodies of Mickey & Minnie Mouse,
causing the Walt Disney organization to unleash its
army of lawyers on the unruly underground cartoonists.
The battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,
which ruled 9-0 in favor of Disney. Hallgren currently
paints personal visions of his favorite comics,
especially “Nancy & Sluggo," he collects vintage
Studebakers, and he ghosts one of America's most
famous syndicated newspaper strips
Related
items: Besides additional Gary Hallgren
paintings, we have Nancy & Sluggo silk
neckties, Ernie Bushmiller
postcards, several rare N&S pinback
buttons, and the coolest Nancy poster ever.
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