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Distortionists: George and Karl
Distortionists: George and Karl
Distortionists: George and Karl

Distortionists: George and Karl

Artist (American, born 1960)
Date2006
Mediumwatercolor and ink on paper
DimensionsSupport: 39 3/8 x 27 3/4 in. (100 x 70.5 cm)
Mat: 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Virginia Hopkins, 2011
Object number2011.15.1
DescriptionTwo male figures in business attire in contortionist and acrobatic poses. Bottom figure, representing Karl Rove, holds a horizontal pole on top of which second figure, representing George W. Bush, is balancing.
Text Entries
New Mexico-based artist Victoria Carlson works within a tradition of political satire in art in her series Distortionists, watercolor and ink on paper works that build upon the artist’s slightly earlier Contortionist series, which is also represented in the collection. In the Distortionist works, Carlson summed up the sentiment of some Americans that the truth had been distorted by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. At issue were claims by the administration that Iraq was building weapons of mass destruction. Those claims were later proven false and were a point of contention for the U.S. midterm elections of 2006, when Carlson created her watercolor satirizing members of the Bush administration by placing them in the uncomfortable positions of a contortionist. Pictured here are George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Pictured in other works in the collection are Condoleeza Rice; Dick Cheney; and Donald Rumsfeld.
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