PHOTO GALLERY
Figure 1
Ben Garrison is a Political Cartoonist and proud Trump and QAnon supporter, whose political cartoons have gained him the attention of both the White House and the mainstream media. In 2019, he was invited to the White House for a Social Media Summit, but after outcry against his invitation due to a history of antisemitism in his cartoons and rhetoric, was promptly disinvited. This piece of political propaganda features references to a myriad of internet conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, including Anti-Semetic references to George Soros and the assertion that only “Citizen Journalists” (aka, random internet users such as “Q” on 8kun) can be trusted.
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Figure #2.2: Image reference, via McNaughton’s Twitter
Jon McNaughton’s oil painting Legacy of Hope depicts figures that he views as being “behind Trump”, based off of a photo of Black Trump supporters praying around him. The figures include historical political figures, such as Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson, JFK, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, as well as black abolitionists including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Furthermore, McNaughton has included himself and Andrew Breitbart, creator of Breitbart news, in the background on the left side. This work demonstrates the idea of Donald Trump as having a divine right to the Presidential Office, and that he is the culmination of what conservatives view to be the “Real America”; primarily white, conservative, and with a deep misunderstanding of what Black figures and revolutionaries were fighting against in the first place.
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Figure #3.2: Third of May 1808, Francisco Goya, 1814.
The bare bones of McNaughton’s parody of The Third of May demonstrates a technical understanding of the original layout of the painting. McNaughton has cleverly replaced the original church with the skyline of New York City, and substituted the original Massacred Spaniards for Black and Latino Trump supporters and veterans. Rather than the original Napoleonic invaders, the oppressive invaders in this version are Anti Fascists, including the distant figure of Nathan Phillips, the Indigenous man infamous for chanting in the face of a white Trump-supporting student. Furthermore, the off-center of the painting is a burning American flag, making the viewer understand who they are supposed to empathize with and in the same vein, who they are to resent and despise.
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Figure #4.2: Waterlilies, Claude Monet, 1905
The painting Masterpiece by Jon McNaughton is a portrait of Donald Trump sitting in his office chair, flanked by the American and Presidential flags on poles. He is smiling smugly with a shit eating smirk as he reveals his “masterpiece” which bears a striking resemblance to one of Monet’s many Waterlilies. This portrait was spread quickly across the internet, spanning a myriad of memes and parodies of the deification of Trump. There is irony in McNaughton’s choice to include what seems to be a Waterlily painting; Monet was repetitively painting water lilies as he grew old and lost his sight, similar to Trump’s growing senility as he neared the end of his term.
#DADDYWILLSAVEUS
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A poster for the Armoury Show of Trump Art, #DADDYWILLSAVEUS. The poster features a selection from organizer Lucian Wintrich’s Twinks for Trump series. After losing their original venue once the owners discovered the nature of the show, they used it as a way to bolster awareness over outcries of censorship. Featuring some of the most controversial figures of the Trump-sphere at the time, the show was not well documented and many of the pieces’ titles and authors are unknown, with some pieces only having blurry photos. Despite the seemingly ironic title, this show was wholeheartedly a pro-Trump conservative art show that attempted to disrupt the generally liberal climate of the high-art world.
Figures #6.1, #6.2, #6.3: #WHITESLAVERY, Gavin McInnes, Triptych Photography
This triptych of self-portraits by VICE Media co-founder and current Proud Boy founder Gavin McIness is meant to shine a light on the supposedly hypocritical groups calling for the reconsideration of how colonization and imperialism factor into our idea of America. McInnes dresses up in the respective “costumes” of the groups that he feels are attacking the livelihood and ideologies of white men. In an interview where he is very clearly stumbling drunk, he says that “the politics is downstream from the culture”. By dressing up as the groups that he feels are being unfairly worshipped for retroactive guilt, he is attempting to comment on how Political Correctness has convinced White men that they need to apologize for the transgressions of their ancestors.
Figures #7.1, #7.2, #7.3: Karma Bro, Martin Shkreli, Pill (Daraprim)
Pharma-bro Martin Shkrelli’s piece for #DADDYWILLSAVEUS is what appears to be a pill, allegedly Daraprim, glued onto a piece of posterboard. Shkrelli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, became known for hiking the cost of Daraprim from $13.50/pill to $750/pill, a 5000% price increase. After serving a seven year sentence for a seperate securities fraud charge, he still proudly exhibits his price hike of the life saving drug. He is known to Wu-Tang Clan fans as the man who bought the only copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $2 million, creating my favorite Jury selection exchange of all time, via Harper’s Bazaar. I wish I could make an analysis of this work, but it’s just an emphasis how how much this man sucks.
Figures #8.1, #8.2: Stills from Angel Mom MILO, Milo Yiannopoulos, 2016
Figure #8.3: Karen Finley, We Keep Our Victims Ready, 1990
Angel Mom Milo features right-wing British troll Milo Yiannopoulos bathing in pigs blood wearing a gold chain, sunglasses, and white MAGA hat. As the performance goes on, he smears the blood all over himself, smokes a cigarette, and splashes the blood on the papers behind him. These are victims of murders that were committed by immigrants, representing what Milo believes as sufficient evidence that all immigrants are bad, evil people, coming to murder you and take your jobs. This piece is reminiscent of Karen Finley’s controversial piece, We Keep our Victims Ready, in which she smears chocolate all over herself, resulting in the loss of her fellowship with the National Endowment for the Arts. While she smeared the chocolate on her nude body, she gave multiple monologues about abuse in various forms, including political, sexual, emotional and artistic. This work, which explores the degradation of women in society (especially in the public sphere), was what made a performance like Milo’s possible in the first place. However, Milo’s piece exists exclusively for shock value, without making any attempt to engage with what inspired it in the first place, simply playing into the culture of celebrity and sensational self-worship.
Sources
Beran, Dale. It Came from Something Awful. All Points Books, 2019.
Evans, Clay Bonnyman. “Politics and the Debasement of Language.” Wonderland, 1 Dec. 2014,https://claybonnymanevans.com/politics-and-the-debasement-of-language/.
Fields, Julian, et al. “QAnon Anonymous Podcast.” SoundCloud, https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous.
Garrison, Ben. “Grrr Graphics – Official Ben Garrison Cartoons.” Grrr Graphics – Official Ben Garrison Cartoons, https://grrrgraphics.com/.
Haney-López, Ian. Dog Whistle Politics. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Jones, Arthur, and Giorgio Angelini. Feels Good Man. PBS, 2020.
McNaughton, Jon. “McNaughton Fine Art.” McNaughton Fine Art, https://jonmcnaughton.com/.
Olasov, Ian. “Offensive Political Dog Whistles: You Know Them When You Hear Them. Or Do You? – Vox.” Vox, Vox, 7 Nov. 2016, https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/7/13549154/dog-whistles-campaign-racism.
Orwell, George. “Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation.” The Orwell Foundation, Horizon, 1946, https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/ politics-and-the-english-language/.
Roose, Kevin. “Rabbit Hole – The New York Times.” The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/column/rabbit-hole.