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Art review
The old-fashioned political paintings of “New York Tough” is The Cuomo Peak, which sums up the state’s war against coronavirus. But is it art?
By Jason Farago
Mao Zedong wrote poetry. Bill Clinton played the saxophone. Winston Churchill and George W. Bush went on to painting. For some politicians, art can calm passions after a long day, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now leading New York to a cautious reopening following the deaths of 32,000 citizens, has recently discovered solace in the field of graphic design.
‘What if someone said, ‘Okay, no words? ‘Paint me a symbol that tells the story of what you’re looking to say, ‘ asked Cuomo on Monday. Describing his reaction to the coronavirus outbreak in injections” as a discharge valve,” he said; I can use some other aspect of my brain.”
Consider the governor’s admission that he trusted a less exercised lobe when he takes a look at his new poster, his moment this year, with the slogan “New York Tough.” This synthesis of the state coronavirus test, which the governor spoke about at a press convention in New York, appears to be a lysergic imitation of a Victorian public reform crusade, translating the pandemic’s nightmare into an equally nightmarish vision of a mountainous island. decorated with icons of death and decay, covered with text flying in all directions.
The virus arrives at a propeller plane, its wings scribbled with “EUROPEANS” and “COVID-19”, ascending to the mountain of death through clouds classified as “WH TASK FORCE FORCE” and “FED NUBES DE CONFUSION”.
The president, known for his long red tie, remains dormant on a crescent moon, labeled “It’s just flu.”
An uncorporeal nose receives a tampon, a surgical mask floats near the top, a bottled hand sanitizer in jail is ready.
To the right of the sign (a little strange, this), a team of reminders holds a rope to decrease the infection rate, blocking the cascade in which the dollar’s symptoms rush out to sea. (Mr. Cuomo, at your press conference: “Understood? Economy Falls, like Niagara Falls?”)
In Death Mountain they look like trademarks that reveal the fitness emergency: New Rochelle, site of the state’s first infection group, was rendered as a generic flame, along with a small clip art “Sorry, we’re closed.”
At the top, in what is intended to mean the moment of maximum doom in new York state, is a windy rainbow, topped with a ribbon with the slogan “Love Wins”. Mr. Cuomo likes this L.G.B.T. a slogan on the bumper decal, but it doesn’t adorn a summit denouncing the pinnacle of New York’s suffering.
There are strange typographical explosions, basically in an ancient variant of Cheltenham (for that matter, the source of New York Times titles), of sizes, of capital letters, of colors, of angles. And there’s a strange outcrop called “Boyfriend Cliff,” from which a young man, possibly the spouse of one of Mr. Cuomo’s daughters, holds his whole life.
The average TikTok video features more polished graphical functionality than this, I think the poster designer wants, with those many subtitles, to echo the dense data of a 19th-century political crusade ad. Apparently also borrowed in the late 19th century, a raw orientalist stereotype: a zephyr to the left of the poster, titled “Winds of Fear,” shockedly gained the horns and flaming eyebrows of a Chinese demon.
As a political propaganda painting, this poster does at least one job: the federal government is at all fault, New York State is diligent and triumphant. As a graphic design painting, well, it actually stands out from the high-contrast progressiveism shepard Fairey orchestrated for Barack Obama’s crusade in 2008 or Donald J. Trump’s virtual Twitter book store. It gets a very high score in interest and considerably less in readability. You can think of the old illustrated paintings of global history that once adorned the classrooms, or perhaps an old promotion for a theater-dinner production of “The Sound of Music”.
Actually, the nostalgic taste of the poster is late, even when it comes to old-fashioned trends. Rarely has it been a decade since Brooklyn’s bars were flooded with “traditional hipsters,” drinking illegal alcohol while wearing old tweed and tapered moustaches. However, Cuomo has a constant taste for political images around 1900: at his press conference, he shouted at the posters of William Jennings Bryan’s crusade as a specific source of inspiration.
In the past, Cuomo collaborated with a designer named Rusty Zimmerman, who this year drew a much larger poster for the governor who described New York as an unwavering schooner that sails “the sea of division” and “the outbursts of hate.” ” “
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