August 20, 2017

At the Questionable Artwork Café...



... you are invited, once again, to examine the political significance and possible offensiveness of a painting. This time there's no hiding the name of the painter. Even if I smudged out the signature, I think you'd know it's Norman Rockwell. I'll add that it's from 1926 and titled "Love Song." The rest is up to you. I especially encourage you to discover the 5 things that are egregiously wrong with this picture.

110 comments:

Hagar said...

The Daily Mail:
The moment 40,000 anti-fascist protesters faced off with a few dozen 'free speech' activists: Aerial photo shows how massive crowd dwarfed right-wing gathering in Boston.

So, which group of "protestors" are the most to be feared?

chickelit said...

Did Rockwell ever paint black folk? That'd be the first thing wrong with him as an artist. Ban him!

David Begley said...

Five? Five things wrong?

Too much black and white thinking by Althouse. Zero-one.

It looks fine to me.

Hagar said...

A seatback appers broken and the young lady is missing a finger as does the glove, I think.

tcrosse said...

Did Rockwell ever paint black folk?

The Problem We All Live With

Hagar said...

Have never seen an actual grandfather clock, but suspect the length of the chains should be the other way around.

john said...

1. There is some serious manspreading going on.

Fernandinande said...

chickelit said...
Did Rockwell ever paint black folk?


That young black girl off to integrated school.

The Stones song nowadays would be "Paint it African American".

Hagar said...

Oops. The young lady hass all her fingers.

Unknown said...

Hagar said
The Daily Mail:
The moment 40,000 anti-fascist protesters faced off with a few dozen 'free speech' activists: Aerial photo shows how massive crowd dwarfed right-wing gathering in Boston.

Maybe it was all a troll...

Fernandinande said...

They're playing symbolic phalluses.
The clock is weighed down by symbolic phalluses attached by unforgiving chains, chains of joy and despair.
The table and chairs rest atop symbolic phalluses.
The woman is lovingly holding a symbolic phallus.
The metronome's symbolic phallus waves back and forth.
"How much is that symbolic vagina in the window?"

Ann Althouse said...

"Blood Brothers."

Big Mike said...

The problems I see regard the furniture. The left leg of the table appear to extend further into the room than the right. The right front leg of the chair that the flutist is sitting on does not match the angle of the left front leg. The back of the chair that the clarinetist is sitting on is the wrong angle with respect to the chair legs. The left front leg of the chair that the clarinetist is sitting on is angled back, needs to be angled forward.

I had a friend who built furniture. He aged the wood in his garage.

David Duffy said...

1. Young woman struck by music from old men=bad
2. Map in background of something colonial=bad
3. Jazz music by whites/cultural appropriation=bad
4. Cuckoo clock/Nazis=bad
5. Numerous penis, vagina, slavery, confederacy images=bad
6. Young woman holding broom=bad

Found six

Bob Boyd said...

One of the egregious things must be the woman holding a broom, implying that cleaning is woman's work.

Bob Boyd said...

Another would be the table cloth that looks like an American flag.

Fernandinande said...

David Begley said...
Five? Five things wrong?


Oops, I missed that; my six things were right things, symbolically speaking.

Bob Boyd said...

The title is questionable because it implies the music has caused the fish pine for it's bicycle.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Jerry Lewis has died.

Big Mike said...

@Hagar, it's a cuckoo clock, not a grandfather clock. Some have three weights, some have two positioned symmetrically about the centerline of the clock, and some are just like the clock pictured, with weights that are both hanging left or both right. It's not an egregious mistake to say that the chain of one weight is longer than the chain of the other.

I eagerly await Prof. Althouse's explanation. I suspect that, given a choice, she'd have swapped an endowed chair in Con Law for being a full professor of Fine Arts at a small college like Bennington in a heartbeat.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, it may be fashionable to dismiss Rockwell as an artist (and I don't know whether you do or don't), but his ability to tell a story with not a word written or spoken is remarkable.

Fernandinande said...

Bob Boyd said...
One of the egregious things must be the woman holding a broom, implying that cleaning is woman's work.


She's not working, she's staring out a window at the Tennessee Mare and thinking about her boyfriend who's coming back to beat up those two guys and carry her away:

"I rode right back across Arkansas
I whipped her brother and
I whipped her Pa
I found that girl with the dark brown hair
She was riding on a Tennessee Mare"

Rabel said...

Margaret Keane appears to have been a Rockwell fan.

Hagar said...

But it is unlikely that the chains would not be the same length, so that the ends of the chains should be the same distance apart as the weights.
And the table legs also seem to be mismatched for thickness.

tcrosse said...

Now that Jerry Lewis has died, maybe they'll release "The Day the Clown Cried"

BudBrown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

Riots across France.

Big Mike said...

@Hagar, right about the table legs, but that wouldn't necessarily be unusual circa 1926 with home-built furniture. You're right about the chains on the cuckoo clock, but my late mother-in-law had one brought back from the Black Forest itself, and the chains never quite appeared to be equal.

Take at look at the bottom of the baseboard under the table and again under and to the left of the flutist's chair. Does that look right to you?

Maybe somebody who is a woodwind expert can tell us whether the flute and clarinet are okay.

Fernandinande said...

I see the puppy!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Stuff that is wrong?

The woman's left hand is deformed. Her index finger is way out of proportion to the rest of her hand.

The chair that the clarinet player is sitting in is also deformed or about to fall apart. The proportions are all wrong.

Clarinet player is either wearing clown shoes or has deformed feet. People's feet don't bend at that angle.

Flute player's chair is also weirdly proportioned.

MaxedOutMama said...

Chickelit:
The Golden Rule
http://collection.nrm.org/search.do?id=536994&db=object&page=1&view=detail

Southern Justice (shooting of Northern voting rights activists)
https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/southern-justice-murder-in-mississippi-1965

New Kids in the Neighborhood:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/norman-rockwell-new-kids-in-the-neighborhood-negro-in-the-suburbs

I'm sure you've seen the famous one "The Problem We All Live With" about the school integration battles:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/The-problem-we-all-live-with-norman-rockwell.jpg

The last one is very justly famous due to the composition.

William said...

I see it as a sympathetic portrait of the woman. It's a gray, rainy day. She's sweeping up a floor that will never look clean and tidy, and there's more chores after that, It's not much of a life. The music the men are producing is beautiful. You can hear the beauty by the yearning on her face. There's beauty in the world, and it's all so distant from her. There's just these fleeting moments between chores.

mockturtle said...

There is nothing wrong with this picture, either egregiously or not. It is a pleasant mood piece in the Rockwellian fashion.

William said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darrell said...

The banker has come to foreclose--his umbrella and papers are on the floor. Her deadbeat dad has tricked the banker into playing the clarinet with flattery, while sonny goes to load and fetch the shotgun. The girl is pondering the cleanup afterward.

Unknown said...

She is longing for a doubleteam

Or

Is she sad about the doubleteam

chickelit said...

It's remarkable that Rockwell could be so right about race and yet be so sexist.

Jersey Fled said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kevin said...

I’m posting this here because the other thread is at 250 posts and God knows if the back-and-forth name calling continues it will hit 400 by dinner. Perhaps the people there like it. I’m sure some do. But for the rest of us, it’s getting boring dealing with people turning every discussion from the topic at hand into a discussion of whether “Trump is the biggest fascist of them all”.

Seriously? I’m all for people using new words to stretch their vocabulary, but look up the word if you plan to use it, so you can use it correctly. And if you’re going to claim “of them all”, you might want to know more than what happened since breakfast.

Here’s a hint: Lincoln started the Republican Party.

fascism, often capitalized :  a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Part of identity politics? Separation of individuals into “white people” and “people of color”? Tamping down unsanctioned thinking and creating “safe spaces” so people don’t have to come into contact with unsanctioned views? Governing by pen and phone? Surveillance of journalists? Putting the IRS on your political enemies? Urging corporations to actively support your political positions? Banning travel to states with laws that differ from your own? Throwing people off of web sites and PayPal because of their views? “Outing” people to their boss in the hopes they will be fired? Firing of people for political beliefs and donations? Suppression of speech? These things remind you of Trump?

Were you asleep for the last eight years? Were you asleep the last eight days?

Or were you just cheering the real fascists because their boot was stomping someone else?

Kevin said...

Earlier today ToothlessRitmo and UnknownInga were doing their thing. “Drumpf" this. “Nazi” that. “Russia” something. The Civil War was to “save America from the unconstitutional right-wing/racial slaveholding empire“ something. Article 25” something else.

It’s predictable. It’s boring. They have a right to speak. We protect their right to repeat their pre-scripted talking points in a Rainman-like fashion, as we protect rights of all mumbling, incoherent Nazis to spew their hatred. We’re pro-free speech.

But when mockturtle pointed out how repetitive, boring drivel was crowding out the actual discussion trying to happen, the response she got was: Oh boo hoo. Fact and reason win out over obfuscation and trivial distraction yet again. Cry me a motha fucken river.

If you prefer facts and reason over trivial distraction, let’s separate the two.

Trivial Distraction: Vice has a video of a few white supremacists saying “Jews will never replace us”. These people have been denounced from the President down through the Republican Party. We know this because Sunsong has been posting all the denunciations from Republicans, which only serve to make the point these people are not representative in any way of the Party’s views.

If that’s the best you have, fold your hand and walk away from the poker table.

Kevin said...

Facts and Reason: Not only was the Confederacy made of Democrats, not only was the KKK a solid Democratic voting bloc until the day they couldn’t get a quorum of any relevancy, and not only did the Democrats filibuster and fight the Civil Rights bill, but that legacy remains in your party today.

You don’t think so?

Robert Byrd didn’t just join the Klan, he started new chapters and became adept at recruiting new members. It was this experience which made people around him suggest he get into politics.

He wrote his Congressman at the time:

“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

He was elected to the House, then the Senate, personally filibustering the Civil Rights bill for 14 hours. He rose to the upper echelons of the Democratic Party, becoming Majority Leader and top Democrat in the Senate for 12 years.

During an interview in his later years he said he would encourage young people to become involved in politics but also warned, "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.”

Well Bob, it didn’t seem to inhibit your career in the Democratic Party one bit.

tcrosse said...

Rockwell's method of work was to create his scenes in the studio and make photo shoots of them. He would then paint what he saw. This is documented in Ron Schick's "Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera", available from you-know-who.

Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera

Kevin said...

But Bryd didn’t stop there. He took the time to mentor a young Senator named Hillary Clinton who eagerly sought his instruction.

Upon Byrd’s passing, Hillary Clinton posted this video to the US State Department’s website:

“Today our country has lost a true American original, my friend and mentor Robert C Byrd. … It is almost impossible to imagine the United States Senate without Robert Byrd. He was not just it’s longest-serving member, he was it’s heart, it’s soul, and it’s historian. From my first day in the Senate I sought out his guidance, and he was always generous with his time and his wisdom. … As Secretary of State I continue to rely on his advice and counsel…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryweuBVJMEA

So who voted for someone linked to white separatists? Who voted for someone mentored by the KKK? Who voted for someone whose career was nurtured and supported by people actively working against civil rights for black people? And who voted for someone who celebrated this man upon his death as a dear, close personal friend and key architect of her political career?

It wasn’t the people who voted for Trump.

You want to tell me the Democratic Party is serious about racism? Let’s stop trying to tear down Confederate statues like they are symbols of today’s Republican Party, when all people are trying to do is whitewash the Democrats’ past.

Let’s begin with every current member of the party who supported KKK members into positions of party leadership resigning in disgrace. Let’s see them come to terms with Party’s racist past. Let’s hear them acknowledge the party of today was built on the foundation of white supremacy and continues today built on discriminating against people based on their race.

Let’s do that if we’re truly serious.

And if we’re not, let’s keep trying to discuss a few people of no consequence, and not linked to anyone in power, in a van talking about Jews like its something meaningful.

Kevin said...

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.

Hagar said...

What we see in the shadow under the table is not necessarily the baseboard. There area to the left of the flutist's chair looks like it has been patched in by persons unknown.

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Thank you, mockturtle.

Hagar said...

If you google Norman Rockwell a number of paintings come up that he would never get away with today, but then perhaps people's minds did not immediately dive for the gutter as fast then as today.

Paddy O said...

I like the relationships. I mean, each character has his own story. The puppy is a bit too much, but you have to over look things like that in these kinds of paintings. The way he's looking at her... it's almost... filthy. I mean, he's about to kiss her and she's pulling away. The way the leg's sort of smashed up against her... Phew... Look how he's painted the blouse sort of translucent. You can just make out her breasts underneath and it's sort of touching him about here. It's really... pretty torrid, don't you think? Then of course you have the onlookers peeking at them from behind the doorway like they're all shocked. They wish. Yeah, I must admit, when I see a painting like this, I get emotionally... erect.

rhhardin said...

Cleaning is women's work because women have a much lower tolerance for mess than men.

Men's tolerance is practically unlimited.

Sally said...

Girl is cross-eyed.

rhhardin said...

What happened to the Rockwell type guy who painted nothing but women with their panties falling down in public places that Lileks discovered. That's probably an Iowan.

Elastic failures. He might be a structural engineer.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Cleaning is women's work because women have a much lower tolerance for mess than men

Hah. You must think I was joking when I chose my internet alias.

:-D

TWW said...

Flutist is playing wrong end of the flute.

Hagar said...

There is a sharper image available from the Indiana Museum of Art that can be downloaded and manipulated.

David Begley said...

Kevin @2:05

Great work. Now get on CNN or MSNBC and read your post. People today have no idea what fascism is. They just want Trump = Hitler.

jaed said...

anti-fascist protesters faced off with a few dozen 'free speech' activists

I have to wonder whether the Daily Mail noticed how surreal this headline is. "Anti-fascists" opposing "free speech".

Anti-fascists. Against free speech.

I realize it's confusing because the fascist group Antifa is involved. If they'd said "Fascist protesters face off against free speech activists", or "Antifas face off against free speech activists", it would make sense. But that's not what they said.

Am I the only one whose eyes are rolling around in my head, here? This is about a quarter tick away from openly declaring that free speech is fascist! Do words have any meaning at all?

Fernandinande said...

Nothing new under the sun:

"Pliny reported that the provincials had been denouncing others to him and even anonymously posting the names of suspected Christians."

Kevin said...

Now get on CNN or MSNBC and read your post. People today have no idea what fascism is. They just want Trump = Hitler.

Thanks, but you think you could read the definition of fascism on CNN or MSNBC? LOL. You'd be thrown on the ground by security as the hosts cheered them for striking at "hate".

Right now I'm reading on my neighbors' FB pages things like: "This is our Fucking city..." #hatersgohome

We are dealing with a level of mass hysteria which goes beyond irony because it has no basis in reason. It is pure, unadulterated emotion.

How bad is it? The Nazis are cheering the Nazis who are going after the other Nazis because "this isn't Germany".

Kevin said...

I have to wonder whether the Daily Mail noticed how surreal this headline is. "Anti-fascists" opposing "free speech".

I'll go you one better. The media kept referring to Antifa as "counter-protesters". But the rally wasn't a protest, it was simply an exercise of free speech.

How deep is the swamp? Even Fox News wouldn't label them "opponents of the free speech event". Even Fox News referred to them as "counter-protesters".

The stone we have thrown into the pit still hasn't hit bottom.

Big Mike said...

Kevin, the problem is that so few of us have been trained to process information that is contrary to our assumptions. Those of us educated at good schools back in the day learned how to do this, and the best STEM graduates from good schools in this 21st century are still mostly okay. But if one starts with one's assumptions, overinflates supporting evidence, no matter how trivial, then ignores contrary evidence, then one gets right back to one's starting point by something that vaguely approximates logic, if one doesn't look to closely.

This methodology is surprisingly versatile. It gets one anthropogenic global warming. (The seas are riding! Uh, no they aren't. The seas are rising because my model says so.). If one assumes that Donald Trump is an anti-Semite, then one ignores the fact that he let his daughter marry a Jew (and an Orthodox Jew at that) and acquiesced in her conversion. One ignores the reality that he took on the entrenched elites of Palm Beach to admit Jews and blacks to his country club. His alleged racism might be a surprise to black aides like Omarosa Manigault and the black celebrities who formerly palled around with him.

And if one starts with the assumption that leftists are all good, honorable people, one gets the antifa and peace and love through clubs and thrown objects.

Kevin said...

And if one starts with the assumption that leftists are all good, honorable people, one gets the antifa and peace and love through clubs and thrown objects.

Right. Trump is a racist because I am not a racist. And the way I prove I'm not a racist is by voting Democrat so as not to be confused with the racists who make up the Republican Party.

It's a tautology. If Trump were a Democrat, all the items you pointed out would be clear as day. The same people calling him a racist today would laugh at the characterization.

And they would laugh, because finding even one racist in the Democratic Party means voting Democrat no longer protects you from charges of racism.

The talisman must work, because it is the talisman.

Big Mike said...

Shoot, Kevin we've hijacked the thread and Althouse hasn't told us what the five egregious mistakes are.

Kevin said...

We're safe. The cafe is the one daily thread immune to hijacking.

Plus, I sent Althouse some cash today so I reloaded my blog karma points.

Sam L. said...

rfhardin, that was Elfgren, IIRC.

Big Mike said...

@Kevin, I doubt they Althouse can be bought.

Ray - SoCal said...

It bothers me that the lady killed in Charlottesville membership of the iww is being airbrushed. It was missing from The NY Times orbit and other places. I view her membership as a fact, no more, no less.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/19/heather-heyer-picked-her-side_partner/

urbane legend said...

From Ray's Salon link:
" We need to understand the specific factors behind the current wave of white nationalist terror in the United States. "

The black and Hispanic shoppers in local stores apparently haven't noticed this wave, as far as I can tell. This is in the South, mind you.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Kevin, the problem is that so few of us have been trained to process information that is contrary to our assumptions.

The most valuable lesson in that, for me, was being on the Debate Team in high school and in college. Routinely, we were assigned a team that was the opposite of what your actual views were. Often we were assigned that way by the teacher on purpose in order to force us to make those counter arguments. Force us to think outside of our own views and really really consider the opposing side.

Are you for abortion?....fine ...you are now assigned to argue against abortion. Death penalty? Coke vs Pepsi?

It may not have changed anyone's minds completely but the experience certainly made you realize that each side of an issue can have some valid points.

Anonymous said...

It's a perfectly cromulent painting.

Kevin said...

We need to understand the specific factors behind the current wave of white nationalist terror in the United States.

How about: The Democrats cannot lose the working class vote and still remain a viable national party? That's a pretty good reason behind the current wave of white nationalist "terror", which seems to amount to a few hundred people and yet never-ending media coverage.

The Dems had always planned to lose the vote of working people. They just needed to (a) happen more slowly, and (b) be replaced by a mass legalization of illegal aliens who would be more amenable to the "white people are racist" rhetoric. They looked at demographics years ago and hitched their future to this strategy for a "permanent majority" by hitching themselves to open borders while selling out the largely-white middle class.

This is why the left is always hearing "dog whistles". First, they need to maintain the idea that people vote R because they're racist in order to hold white voters while simultaneously arguing that racism is solely a white problem. And second, because they need people who might vote R to wonder if they're being influenced by subconscious racist rhetoric so as to vote D on the margin.

Trump's coalition, if he can hold and expand it, throws their entire strategy in the toilet. The war against Trump is an existential one for the Democratic Party.

The existential war for the Republican Party was lost several administrations ago. If Trump fails, there is no Republican Party.

Kevin said...

I doubt they Althouse can be bought.

I doubt God can be bought either - what does He want with paper money and coins?

And yet people still make the effort to fill the offering plate.

Dave Begley said...

I figured it out! Kevin in Steven K. Bannon.

Kevin said...

Straight up racism: "You stupid ass black bitch! You're supposed to be on our side!" - that's what this protester screamed in the face of a black police officer

https://twitter.com/PhilipinDC/status/899099024455872512 …

What portion of the crowd do you think agreed with the racist?

BTW, I see a lot of people in that video who should have been arrested but weren't. Do the police think that's going to make protesters less likely to attack the cops next time, knowing what they let them get away with this week?

Kevin said...

figured it out! Kevin in Steven K. Bannon.

Hmmm.

Apparently I didn't write enough about big black dildos to be confused with Milo.

rcocean said...

"It's remarkable that Rockwell could be so right about race and yet be so sexist."

Good God. What is "sexist" about it? No wait, don't tell me. I don't want to be bored.

The only thing that struck me was the Broom is way too big. I guess Rockwell wanted to show it but had to make it big enough for people to notice.

Fabi said...

"Apparently I didn't write enough about big black dildos to be confused with Milo."

Or Laslo.

Michael K said...

"The war against Trump is an existential one for the Democratic Party."

Absolutely and I think their embrace of ANTIFA is a fatal error.

tcrosse said...

"The war against Trump is an existential one for the Democratic Party."

It's all they've got. If Trump didn't exist, they'd have to invent him.

Humperdink said...

Kevin said: "I doubt God can be bought either - what does He want with paper money and coins?

And yet people still make the effort to fill the offering plate."

From my perspective, it's all God's money anyway, we are just stewards of it. Additionally, our tiny church of 150, (partially) supports roughly 40 missionaries around the world. In some cases, where Christianity is banned. Having spoken with many of them personally, I can attest they lead interesting lives.

Fabi said...

"Absolutely and I think their embrace of ANTIFA is a fatal error."

One of many, but perhaps the most treacherous. The MSM now lacks the ability to hide their true ugliness. Voters in Pennsylvania and Iowa aren't going to side with the Antifa scum who shoved the little old lady and ripped the flag out of her hands.

Michael said...

The Confederates were nearly abreast of the Union ranks. As far as they knew, the blue-clad division of their late enemies was simply there to see to it that they laid down their arms. Suddenly the Southerners heard bugles and drums. The soldiers of the United States Army were lifting their muskets to the position of Carry Arms in a salute to the Confederate States Army. The effect was electric. Chamberlain, who had given the order to salute, watched the Confederate general react: Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound . . . looks up . . . wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then, facing to his owncommand, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual,—honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum . . . but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!

The grace of the victors. Appomatoxx. As the Confederates surrendered their arms.

Ralph L said...

The writing on the map looks like "Fairfield Connecticut", which used to be totally country club Republican.

The girl's eyes are freakishly yuge.

Big Mike said...

Well, Michael, people understood concepts like honor and honesty and integrity and the need to unite, not divide. Less of that these days. None at all among the Democrats.

Big Mike said...

@Ray, yes, the score is ...

Number of neo-Nazis killed: 0

Number of organizers for communist fronts killed: 1

Michael K said...

Voters in Pennsylvania and Iowa aren't going to side with the Antifa scum who shoved the little old lady and ripped the flag out of her hands.

Once the DNC IT scandal breaks, I don't think even the NY Times can ignore it.

Mueller is going come back with nothing, maybe Flynn but I doubt even that.

They are going to be desperate. It may get very i=ugly, though.

There is a hell of a lot of anger and no place for it to go. I see an assassination attempt.

A friend of mine in college was thinking about joining the John Birch Society, which was pretty big then.

I told him I didn't think it was a good idea as some nut would do something foolish and he would be explaining his membership.

That was far more bourgeois than this stuff.

Rabel said...

"It bothers me that the lady killed in Charlottesville membership of the iww is being airbrushed."

The Salon piece linked above claimed she was IWW. This is, I believe, incorrect. Initial reporting stated that she was a member of the WWP which is the World Workers Party.

What's the difference. The IWW is a Socialist oriented international labor union often called the Wobblies that has been around since the early 20th century. The WWP is not a labor union. It is an explicitly Communist organization. They support North Korea, for example.

So, yes. It is being suppressed.

Hagar said...

So, is Althouse going to enlighten us as to the 5 things that are egregiously wrong with this picture?

Big Mike said...

@Hagar, my friend, I'm starting to worry.

chickelit said...

Absolutely and I think their embrace of ANTIFA is a fatal error.

There are Pulitzers to be won writing communist apologia. When Duranty wrote his "best" work, the Soviets were not yet vilified either. That all came after the War. The key is for the NYT to successfully give cover for antifa for as long as possible.

Dr Weevil said...

What with the ubiquity of cell-phone selfies, wouldn't we expect to have seen pictures by now of Heather H. marching proudly in solidarity with her anti-Fascist friends before she died? Why haven't we? Was she wearing a black mask and carrying a baseball bat? Were all her friends masked, too?

And why haven't we learned the names, professions, and hometowns of the other injured, with sad stories about how they loved to play with puppies and now will never walk again (or whatever)? Well, that's not too hard to guess: as I've mentioned here before, Jeet Heer of the New Republic tweeted (approvingly!) that all the dead and wounded were IWW, IS, or DSA. Perhaps he was confused, or forgot to mention the WWP.

Ralph L said...

The left table leg is longer and thinner than the right.

Fabi said...

Killing Trump gets them Pence. Trump is conducting business as a conservative, but he's not a SoCon -- Pence is a solid SoCon. Maybe they are that stupid.

Michael K said...

The WWP is not a labor union. It is an explicitly Communist organization. They support North Korea, for example.

So, yes. It is being suppressed.


Yes. I didn't even know about the other group.

It was the fat girl climbing the confederate statue before I heard about it.

SF said...

TWW said "Flutist is playing wrong end of the flute."

Absolutely not. See how there are silver bands around the flute, and the one closest to his mouth looks like there are two bands right next to each other? That's the flute's tuning slide, and it's pushed all the way in. He's playing a wooden flute in the correct manner. If you look at the second picture on this page -- http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Plans.htm -- that's very much like the flute in the Rockwell, except I don't think the painted flute has the bottom two keys (still a perfectly reasonable flute design, those keys are kind of extras on a wooden flute).

Now the clarinet seems a bit short to me, an Eb clarinet maybe?

mockturtle said...

DBQ recalls: The most valuable lesson in that, for me, was being on the Debate Team in high school and in college.

I debated in high school and once had to argue in favor of racially segregated schools, which was not my view at all. It was a little dismaying that I won the debate. My argument was on behalf of the 'colored' [then] students' learning experience, not that of the whites. Ironically, there is some evidence today showing that blacks do better in all black schools and that girls, at least, fare better academically in all girl schools.

n.n said...

Absolutely and I think their embrace of ANTIFA is a fatal error.

It depends if the journolistic gateway can suppress or project the Antifa character and actions. They have managed to suppress other neo-national socialist characteristics under a layer of privacy. So, it is not beyond belief that they will continue to do it as long as it produces leverage and profit.

That said, the "funny women" on Family Feud are playing for their favorite charity: Planned Parenthood. Progress.

wildswan said...

!. They're Germans
2. They're men.
3. They're leaving the cleaning to the woman.
4. The woman likes the "love" (pah) song.
5. The men are poor and old but still alive and enjoying music when they begging the government to be euthanized.
6. There should be a black, an Asian and a Hispanic in the picture instead of eclipsing them and airbrushing out their contribution. Antifa should be beating them up for playing European music. Their Confederate underwear should not be hidden. The flute and recorder form a part of a swastika which is also airbrushed out. Antifa should be punching them. And they should be kneeling, saying thank-you for this re-education opportunity. Instead of having fun.

Big Mike said...

Oh, come on Althouse! It's been 8 1/2 hours now.

Ty said...

Both chairs seem wonky. Also the clock weights and chains don't appear correct. The higher the weight, the longer the remaining chain should be. Or is it more Freudian, with old guys fellating black wieners while a young woman gives a broom an "old-fashioned"?

Rosalyn C. said...

1. The figure on the left has a right leg longer than his left. Even with foreshortening, this is obvious when you look at the fact that the hips are square.
2. The figure on the left has a right foot that is smaller than his left. Especially considering that his right leg is extended and closer to the viewer, it should appear larger.
3. The table legs are askew. the top edge of the table is square to the viewer's picture plane but the leg on the left is closer to the viewer.
4. The figure on the right (clarinet player) seems to be missing part of his right leg. The ankle is not there at all, just the shoe.
5. The chair of the clarinet player is completely askew, the back seems twisted about 30 degrees from the seat.
6. The coat the the clarinet player is sticking out at about a 45 degree angle instead of falling. It seems to be attached to the broom.
7. There's an odd red reflection on the clarinet player's coat. It's too large to come off the glove.
8. There's also an unexplained red shadow under the table and the clarinet player's chair.

All these "mistakes," and many other linear elements AKA compositional devices, give the picture tremendous agitation and energy.

Ralph L said...

there is some evidence today showing that blacks do better in all black schools
The Diversity requirement is usually framed as bringing different perspectives to the majority white students.

Big Mike said...

@R. J. Chart, are you a fine arts grad? Althouse, is he right?

narciso said...

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/08/terry_and_the_antifa_bandits_will_inherit_the_wind.html

bagoh20 said...

So now I know what's wrong with it, and I still love her, I mean it. It.

TheGiantPeach said...

What the Dickens? Little Nell didn't die after all. Here she is, grown up, and still sweeping.

Ray - SoCal said...

Heather Heyer seemed to be a member of both:
IWW - Industrial Workers of the World
DSA - Democratic Socialists of America:

https://knock-la.com/we-must-not-allow-centrists-to-erase-heather-heyers-activism-1b76f2fb87a

>It bothers me that the lady killed in Charlottesville membership of the iww is being
>airbrushed. It was missing from The NY Times orbit and other places. I view her
> membership as a fact, no more, no less.
> http://www.salon.com/2017/08/19/heather-heyer-picked-her-side_partner/

Kansas Scout said...

The clock weights and chains are not in proper relationship. The flautist is blowing the wrong end.The chair back is out of synch with the legs.

Rosalyn C. said...

@Big Mike -- Art history grad and fine artist.

ELC said...

Thank you for sharing this. I am a big Norman Rockwell fan.

I believe I've seen all the claims of mistakes in the previous comments, and they do not strike me as mistakes. Rockwell typically painted just what he saw, and I'm pretty sure that's what he did with this one.

But I am, perhaps, inattentive or insufficiently critical. What might the "5 things" "egregiously wrong" be?

ELC said...

What are the 5 things?