In the photo essay of section 6 on page 114 there is a work of art entitled “Europe Supported by Africa and America” in which there appears to be an African and a Native American woman holding or “supporting” a European woman. I think it’s interesting that the artist of this work has chosen to use women instead of men to represent these countries. What is the significance of this? I have often heard countries such as Britain or American referred to as her or she; maybe this is referencing that. The use of women will force me to look at the painting in a different way. All of the women are naked, however the Native American and African women are looking directly at the onlooker, while the European woman is looking down or her eyes may be closed. I believe that this shows that the other two women are up for grabs, as something tangible, as opposed to the European woman who is intangible. Or she may be tangible as well (considering her sex), just harder to obtain. All of these women are linked by a chain, maybe the message is that despite their origins, all women are the same: naked and obtainable.- The second part may be a bit of a stretch.
In the second piece on that page, “Pity”, there seems to be an angel of sorts doing two possible things: 1. getting ready to impregnate (physically put a baby into) a dying or lying woman or 2. completing the action of taking a baby from a dying or lying woman. Either way, the woman appears unhappy or regrettable. I feel like this could be representing or reenacting some Greek or Roman mythology.
I believe that the painting on page 116 “Sale of Pictures and Slaves in the Rotunda, New Orleans, 1842” is sending the message that just like pictures, slaves are objects to be bought and sold.
“Publicity is usually explained and justified as a competitive medium which ultimately benefits the public (consumer)” and the most efficient manufactures- and thus the national economy. It is closely related to certain ideas about freedom: freedom of choice for the purchaser: freedom of enterprise for the manufacturer. The great hoardings and the publicity neons of the cities of capitalism are the immediate visible sign of “The Free World” (131).
I love the comparison between the glamorous and the bureaucrat: “You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest- if you do, you will become less enviable. In this respect the envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, they greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power. The power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness: the power of the bureaucrat is his supposed authority” (133).
“Publicity relies to a very large extent on the language of oil painting, It speaks in the same voice about the same things” (135).
I loved the photo essay on pages 136 and 137 that showed the images or advertisements as a pastiche of paintings.
