The other day I noted the recent purchase of some conservative-realist art by the noted collector Sean Hannity.
On the radio last night Hannity was playing up the artist, Jon McNaughton, like a Medici taking delivery of his latest order from Michelangelo. He particularly likes another McNaughton opus, The Forgotten Man (click here for a video showing The Hand of The Master at work).
The Forgotten Man shows a man, forgotten by all but the first 43 presidents of the United States. He sits, forlornly, on a park bench in front of The White House, where the flag flies at half-staff. President Obama, who burned the Constitution in Hannity's new pick, is portrayed stamping on it here, his arms crossed and a petulant gaze on his face:
Strangely, littered across the pavement in front of the tableau is- money! But it is symbolic money: each, on McNaughton's primer page, is denominated US Dollar 1, US Dollar 3, etc., and comes with an explanation of An Obama Evil. Scattered among the bills are pieces of paper. Each represents an amendment of the Constitution trashed in Another Obama Outrage.
What's really interesting, though, is McNaughton's placement of the presidents. Madison exhorts the President to stop standing on his paperwork. Lincoln, Reagan, Jefferson and Washington beckon him to notice The Forgotten Man. To Obama's left (as he's standing, that is) are Presidents Clinton and both Roosevelts (it's a miracle- Franklin's standing! No one's propping him up!), applauding the scene. Woodrow Wilson looks professorial. Presidnt Carter is banished to a back row with the tax-raising Hoover and Taft. Warren G. Harding is wedged in between Nixon and Ford. Bush 2 is pointing at something. President Kennedy is just behind Washington, revealed by the explanatory text as an actual conservative.
Even the cloud cover has meaning ("Stormy Skies").
On the radio last night Hannity was playing up the artist, Jon McNaughton, like a Medici taking delivery of his latest order from Michelangelo. He particularly likes another McNaughton opus, The Forgotten Man (click here for a video showing The Hand of The Master at work).
The Forgotten Man shows a man, forgotten by all but the first 43 presidents of the United States. He sits, forlornly, on a park bench in front of The White House, where the flag flies at half-staff. President Obama, who burned the Constitution in Hannity's new pick, is portrayed stamping on it here, his arms crossed and a petulant gaze on his face:
Strangely, littered across the pavement in front of the tableau is- money! But it is symbolic money: each, on McNaughton's primer page, is denominated US Dollar 1, US Dollar 3, etc., and comes with an explanation of An Obama Evil. Scattered among the bills are pieces of paper. Each represents an amendment of the Constitution trashed in Another Obama Outrage.
What's really interesting, though, is McNaughton's placement of the presidents. Madison exhorts the President to stop standing on his paperwork. Lincoln, Reagan, Jefferson and Washington beckon him to notice The Forgotten Man. To Obama's left (as he's standing, that is) are Presidents Clinton and both Roosevelts (it's a miracle- Franklin's standing! No one's propping him up!), applauding the scene. Woodrow Wilson looks professorial. Presidnt Carter is banished to a back row with the tax-raising Hoover and Taft. Warren G. Harding is wedged in between Nixon and Ford. Bush 2 is pointing at something. President Kennedy is just behind Washington, revealed by the explanatory text as an actual conservative.
Even the cloud cover has meaning ("Stormy Skies").
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