Painting of Jolie draws notice

[helderheid]

By MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 7, 6:43 AM ET

RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line.



Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given "Blessed Art Thou," showing this weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.

The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000 on Wednesday.

"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."

The painting -- acrylic and oil on linen -- depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070107/ap_on_re_us/people_angelina_s_painting

:crazy:

[ntesla]

1. It's Opium of the masses that go to Walmart

:silly:

[Capn Sunshine]

2. Beats Brittany on a bearskin rug

not by much though

[Atman]

8. I wish someone would!

Hit her baby, one more time. Smack some sense into that bubble head.

:)

.

[Warpy]

15. I see it a bit differently

I see it as an incredibly sarcastic rendering about how far above the desperately mundane world most of us inhabit people born to fame and great fortune are, how their acts of mercy like adopting a few children out of poverty are the stuff of sainthood while the rest of us toil in a bleak world with trips to regimented markets to keep us alive to do more of it as our treats for the week.

I love the sarcasm. The painting is beautifully done.

Britney on a bearskin was just plain dumb, clumsily executed with no regard to anything but sexualizing birth, a notion that all women who have actually been through childbirth found both hilarious and offensive.

[phylny]

25. Not to mention that she had a c-section, which was probably NOT done on a rug ;) n/t

[unpossibles]

32. great point. Heck, you could even read into it that the shoppers at Wal-Mart

are directly supporting more children than Jolie in the sense that they are purchasing items possibly made by child workers.

[Missy M]

3. Aside from the painting not being very good....

I can't get the connection between celebrity worship and Walmart

[Atman]

5. I think it's a "trailer trash" kinda reference

And I disagree about the painting. It ain't my cup of tea, but I think it's pretty damned good.

.

[Missy M]

7. Everyone to their own taste.

[RebelOne]

22. Excuse me, but I resent the "trailer trash" comment.

I live in a mobile home and it upsets me when people use that term. We are not all ignorant, foul-mouthed, beer-swilling Repukes. And I would never had a painting like that in my home.

[Warpy]

27. I wouldn't have had a painting like that in my trailer, either

when I lived in one.

My trailer park, BTW for all the snobs out there, had 3 swimming pools, umpteen tennis courts, 3 clubhouses, and was adjacent to a golf course, with memberships available to residents at a nominal cost.

If it hadn't been located on the edge of town and inconvenient to everything, I might still be there. I loved living in a trailer.

[Atman]

37. Yes, but it is still an evocative term with a certain meaning.

If you aren't trailer trash, you shouldn't be offended. I didn't say "mobile home dwellers." There is a distinct difference between a person who is "trailer trash" and a person who "lives in a mobile home." Hell, my MOM just sold all her stuff and bought a beautiful double-wide that is nicer than many people's "houses."

Don't get so defensive. Words are just words, and if they don't pertain to you, you've got no reason to be upset. I wouldn't call my mom "trailer trash" any more than I would a DUer I've never even met.

.

[unpossibles]

9. I interpret it as being the idea that she is above the masses

and Wal-mart represents the masses in America pretty well.

It's done in a very classic Iconography sort of way, and I think it works very well.

Also, look at it this way - the artist has said they want people to think about it, and you have thought about it (in that you questioned why Wal-Mart was included), so... mission accomplished.

[Missy M]

14. So she is saying Angelina Jolie is above the masses....

yet the Walmart masses are the very people who go to her movies and put money in her pocket. Is she above the masses because of her beauty. I interpret it as an artist trying to get attention because she couldn't get any before. Mediocre art is still mediocre art, regardless of its message.

[unpossibles]

31. he is saying that we put celebrity above us, not that they are inherently better

And what makes "good" or "bad" art has been argued for over a century, so good luck defining that one.

I see this as Americans making celebrities into our Royalty (which in essence is not far removed at all from divinity).

[alfredo]

10. She's another product to be sold. As long as celebrity gets

worshipped, money can be made on their name and image. How many tabloids have been sold because of her exploits?

[Atman]

12. Actually, it looks like a throw rug Wal Mart would actually sell!

Right next to the ones with baby tigers and Elvis on 'em.

.

[alfredo]

23. Art isn't always pretty.

We can never tell what will be seen as art, one year from today, much less 100 years from today.

In my opinion, if it makes you feel something, it is art.

[Atman]

36. Is that a Ben Shahn illustration?

I got a book of his art as a Christmas gift when I was about twelve. The guy was awesome. I remember at first thinking "this guy just scribbles...this sucks!" But then I got deeper into it (and tried to draw something that "sucked" as much), and Shahn's stuff is just amazing.

.

[alfredo]

38. Picasso "Guernica"

Ben Shahn. I like his work.

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. Tabloids at the check-out stand

Whether or not it is a fair depiction (and it probably isn't), the "Wal-Mart crowd" are seen as the target audience of "The National Enquirer", "People" and other celebrity stalking rags.

[jobycom]

16. It's not meant to be a direct connection

It's a commentary on religion, celebrity, and American culture. It shows the dichotomy between the figures we hold up to esteem, almost worship, and the life most of us lead. It is a multi-layered symbol. On some level it is showing Jolie as a saint of the media, and the masses at Walmart worshipping her. On the other hand, no one is looking up at Jolie, so it also implies that their worship is not necessary to create this saint, that she is always there, whether they notice her or not. It is in some ways a criticism of the shoppers at Walmart, that they pay attention to the mundane, and not the true good that Jolie does.

Another layer is the connection to the tabloids at the Walmart checkout line and Jolie. The tabloids gossip about her, spread stories about her, etc. In some ways she rises above that gossip, but in other ways her divinity is still tied to it.

One can also read into it a larger commentary on the connection of God to society. The old image of God no longer fits American culture. Walmart shoppers have no connection to the old images of the divine, and instead are more connected to an image that comes from our society and relates to it. The image of an extremely beautiful celebrity who uses her fame to help hungry children in a land not as blessed as ours is a more fitting diety. That diety demonstrates how furtunate we are to have places like Walmart to shop, to over-eat and over-indulge, etc, and so we are encouraged to follow a diety who tries to distribute our enormous wealth to people who need it.

And of course there is the negative commentary on our society, that we worship celebrity and beauty.

It's a good painting. Not technically creative or overly skilled (though not bad at all), but it does what art is supposed to do--it makes a multi-layered commentary that would be impossible to sum up in any other medium. I think it is as significant as anything that comes out of visual art these days, at least that I've seen. Certainly, it's more exciting than Thomas Kincaide, or that guy who draws 3-D chalk images on sidewalks (gorgeous though his works may be).

Just my analysis. It's my way of avoiding significant work at my job. :)

[TahitiNut]

18. We want our goddesses to be more tangible. We want bread AND circuses.

We can worship Angelina and she asks very little of us ... just $6.50 per person at the cineplex worship sessions. Who knows who 'fathered' her children - they may as well be 'virgin births,' right? (Maybe the church's latest issue of "People" will tell us.)

I think it's a wonderfully cynical parody of modern culture. We don't need Persephone or Demeter or even Joan of Arc. We got Angelina - Our Lady of the Lips and Hips.

[jobycom]

20. I don't think it's meant to be entirely cynical

The image of her isn't derogatory or mocking, other than the context. But I see what you mean, that she asks very little of us. The people in line don't even notice her. It's more cynical of us than of her, but it also shows what we really worship. We do require good deeds, but we don't provide much in the way of sacrifice.

[pansypoo53219]

21. that's because

the painting doesn't 'say' what she says it says. if it was about the walmartians adoring fame, angelina would be in the checkout area and the sheeple would be 'adoring' her. no, she took a pic at walmart and painted that and pasted on the angelina crap above it.

failure to communicate!

good idea, fucking banal and bad painting.

i can say this cause not only do i have a degree in painting, i have one in illustration as well. so there. all she has is koontz self promo tion.

[unpossibles]

34. I have a degree in painting too. that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee

I know what you're saying about it being self-promotion, but I don't necessarily find that to be inherently wrong either. Many good artists were also good at working their other favorite medium: people.

[xchrom]

4. thoughtful and interesting combination.

i like it.

interesting to make the Virgin look Heroic.

not only does she have elements of the Virgin -- but those representations of say germany or the old soviet union representing the Motherland.

[kentuck]

6. see this :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6030834

[MsUnderstood]

13. i'll bet madonna is pist!

n/t

[formerrepuke]

17. Art which gets people talking and debating its meaning...that's the point,

I think...and I like it.

[porphyrian]

19. I love it, in the same way I love Miguel Calderon's stuff.

Some of them were used in The Royal Tennenbaums.

http://www.iswest.net.nyud.net:8090/~jason/Art/CM1998-013%20Bad%20Route.e.jpg

http://www.iswest.net.nyud.net:8090/~jason/Art/CM1998-011%20Attack.e.jpg

[npincus]

24. good one!

[ShortnFiery]

26. CNN thinks it's terrible that Jolie is not making as big of stink about

her being assumed to be the Vigin Mary as her genuine insult that it was displayed in Walmart.

On this one Corporate CNN doesn't have a clue. :crazy:

[BreweryYardRat]

28. That's a fucking sacrilege.

Choosing Angelina-fucking-Jolie as your model for the Virgin Mary? That's a damned insult. Choose an Israeli or a Lebanese Jew.

Heck, choose Sarah Silverman, if the artist is bigoted enough to require a white person/American. She's a fairly decent human being.

Jolie, on the other hand, strikes me as someone who does a lot of stuff just to get attention, and she split up Jennifer Aniston's marriage, to boot. Not someone you want portraying the mother of Jesus.

[Rosemary2205]

30. Actually

the biblical story of Mary is intended to be portray Mary as any common woman, and the greater meaning of the biblical story is to take the message of God to all the world's inhabitants. Since then there are women around the world for 2 millenia that have claimed to see Mary appear around the world, such as Our lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our lady of Guadelupe - etc. Clearly, the message is of Mary being of any race.

Now, as to whether Jolie qualifies as a common woman is another discussion. Do women considered of exceptional beauty have trials? Fears? Difficulties? Losses?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. if the artist is bigoted enough to require a white person

Actually, I think that's part of the gag.

[maveric]

29. Looks stupid and should be painted on Black Velvet.

Like the roadside pics you get in Tijuana.

:puke:

[Marie26]

35. I like it

Celebrities are our new gods; Wal-Mart is where we worship them.