In 1992, Australian artist Peter Kingston (b. 1943) created a box construction based on a 1946 New Yorker cartoon by Peter Arno.
What could have prompted Kingston to take on this unusual project? Why did he choose this particular Arno cartoon? Although published in America early in the postwar period, it has something of a colonial British Empire feel to it with its antiquated racist and sexist assumptions. If one can get past all that, it is also very funny.
Kingston's box retains flat cutouts of the Arno characters with some muted color added. Arno has the characters closer together with the husband's hand in front of Major Belknap's back. In Kingston's construction, the characters stand farther apart; only the husband's finger is in front of the Major's back.
So which appears more three-dimensional, the two dimensional Arno or the three-dimensional box construction by Kingston?
Clearly it's the Arno. Arno has the front door audaciously opening into the room and the stairs ascending to the right in a three-quarter view. There is a hint of two-point perspective, but can those two foyer walls really be at right angles to each other? Does that right hand wall really run parallel to the wall in the hallway? Perhaps not. Possibly the stairs go up a curved wall. Whatever the case, Arno is engaged in some sort of convincing sleight-of-hand here. Kingston doesn't even try to open the front door into the room and he gives only a side view of the stairs. The walls still don't intersect at a plausible right angle. Perhaps it was Arno's placement of three characters standing in a single plane in a cramped but complex space that drew Kingston to this cartoon. Or perhaps he just thought it was funny.
Note: Michael Maslin, in his biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of the New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist (2016), points out that it was this cartoon with which Peter Arno's "strike" against the New Yorker came to an end. See page 155 here.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
Peter Arno
Appropriation Art
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| "This is Major Belknap, dear. He hasn't seen a white woman in three years." (1992) Peter Kingston |
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| Peter Kingston Leonard Joel sale November 21, 2010 Sydney, Australia |
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| https://www.exchangerates.org.uk/USD-AUD-31_12_2010-exchange-rate-history.html |
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| Cartoon by Peter Arno, spot by James Thurber |
Kingston's box retains flat cutouts of the Arno characters with some muted color added. Arno has the characters closer together with the husband's hand in front of Major Belknap's back. In Kingston's construction, the characters stand farther apart; only the husband's finger is in front of the Major's back.
So which appears more three-dimensional, the two dimensional Arno or the three-dimensional box construction by Kingston?
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| "This is Major Belknap, dear. He hasn't seen a white woman in three years." Peter Arno The New Yorker, March 9, 1946, page 22 |
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| "This is Major Belknap, dear. He hasn't seen a white woman in three years." (1992) Peter Kingston |
Clearly it's the Arno. Arno has the front door audaciously opening into the room and the stairs ascending to the right in a three-quarter view. There is a hint of two-point perspective, but can those two foyer walls really be at right angles to each other? Does that right hand wall really run parallel to the wall in the hallway? Perhaps not. Possibly the stairs go up a curved wall. Whatever the case, Arno is engaged in some sort of convincing sleight-of-hand here. Kingston doesn't even try to open the front door into the room and he gives only a side view of the stairs. The walls still don't intersect at a plausible right angle. Perhaps it was Arno's placement of three characters standing in a single plane in a cramped but complex space that drew Kingston to this cartoon. Or perhaps he just thought it was funny.
Over the decades, Kingston has continued to create occasional constructions and these have gained greatly in technical sophistication. It would be interesting to see how the artist would handle a similar challenge to the Arno drawing today. But perhaps he has learned that Arno does not easily give up his secrets.
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The Night Ferry (2014)
Peter Kingston
http://australiangalleries.com.au/exhibitions/peter-kingston-previous-exhibition-and-book-launch-rs14/ |
Note: Michael Maslin, in his biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of the New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist (2016), points out that it was this cartoon with which Peter Arno's "strike" against the New Yorker came to an end. See page 155 here.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
Peter Arno
Appropriation Art
The New Yorker
Attempted Bloggery's One-Dimensional Index
03033
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