Simpsons Spoofs: 20th Century Art

It's time once again for The Simpsons spoofs. Today we're going to learn about famous 20th Century (mostly) art/artists. Woohoo! There have been quite a few art parodies produced officially by the Simpsons people over the years, mostly for posters.

To start with the most recent we have the ubiquitous "L'Enfant" poster of a photograph of a male model holding a baby. Taken by photographer Spencer Rowell in 1987, the poster has sold over 5 million copies since it was first published. Hmmm... I wonder who it's target audience is?

Inching our way back in time we have Lisa as Roy Lichtenstein's "Hopeless" image painted in 1963. Lichtenstein is most famous for his 1950's/60's comic book inspired pop art images. Though the images are painted in oil and Magna paints they will often depict Benday Dots to mimic the appearance of printing.

Continuing in the pop art vein we have a homer painting in the style of Andy Warhol. This most closely resembles Warhol's celebrity paintings made during the 1960's when he was focusing on iconic American symbols, excepting that Warhol's portraits would typically depict 4 (or more) identical poses with altered colour schemes.

Next is a spoof of Edvard Munch's The Scream (Norwegian: Skrik). This was actually a series of images that Munch made featuring this theme (and variations thereon) in different media starting in 1893 and continuing into the early 1900s (so it's still 20th century). It is painted in the expressionist style in which the artist will tend to distort reality to achieve a truer image of the emotional reality (usually angst-ridden). The painting depicts a happy little character expressing himself, bystanders in the background, and a landscape in Oslo at sunset.
Next we have a spoof of Georges Seurat's painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte). Painted in 1884 it is one of the most famous examples of the style of pontillism, in which a mosaic of distinct dots (using a reduced colour palette) forms the image. OK fine this painting isn't 20th century... and Seurat died in 1891 so I can't even say he still painted in the 20th century. Oh well.

Finally, just to bring us back into the 20th century, we have "Nighthogs". A spoof of Edward Hopper's most famous painting "Nighthawks" which was painted in 1942 (oil on canvas) and depicts a diner that used be on Greenwich Ave. in New York. Edward Hopper's art is some of the most recognizable of all of America's 20th Century realist painters. Meaning his paintings look like the things they look like - mostly scenes and people from 50's America, which makes sense.