Mighty Mask
Maker
Ed Paschke
(American, 1939-2004)
Date1969
MediumOil on canvas in original artist's frame
Dimensions36 × 26 in. (91.4 × 66 cm)
Framed: 36 1/2 × 26 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (92.7 × 67.3 × 3.5 cm)
Framed: 36 1/2 × 26 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (92.7 × 67.3 × 3.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Arthur Paul
Object number1998.65
Object TypePaintings
On View
Not on viewMighty Mask is among Paschke's earliest paintings, which draw from popular representational culture: tattoo art, cartoons, and media images. Paschke's dark and acid-laced compositions cultivate the strange in urban subculture. A crouching lower body hovers above a depiction of Mighty Mouse, flanked by masked and distorted faces. The composition offers a strange melding of memories of war and cultural references in which the toxic color palette of neon green, yellow, and shades of orange pop against the background of indigo blues and black, giving it an ominous luminous quality.
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