About the Painting 1

Dimensions in cm/inches
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The EuroDisney Triptych was completed in January 1998
and first exhibited at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York
4 December 1999 to 15 January 2000.
It was made on Strathmore illustration
board, using ink and a mixture of Winsor and Newton
watercolors and Liquitex acrylic medium, which also
serves as the final varnish.
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The painting is an elaborate comment
on the juggernaut of American popular culture that's
homogenizing the world. The EuroDisney theme park (so close to
Paris, the last citadel of European civilization) is the perfect
symbol for this phenomenon. The painting shows the park being
destroyed by a huge crowd of violent demonstrators.
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Detail from left side of left panel
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Detail from right side of left panel
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The structure of the
painting is like that of a comic strip, moving chronologically
from left to right, the action becoming more and more violent.
The style reflects this change and turns gradually from a 1930s
newspaper-cartoon style on the left to a more realistic style in
the center to an expressionist-cubist style on the right.
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The demonstrators bring with them signs, floats,
and giant balloons that grotesquely parody the Disney images.
Ultimately, the demonstrators prove themselves more imaginative
and relevant than the designers of the park.
The theme of the painting is not an attack on Disney.
(The Artist has said that between 1926 and 1941
Walt Disney was one of the world's most creative people.)
Instead, it's a challenge to Europe and the rest
of the world, not to put up barriers to keep out
American popular culture, but to create and update
their own.
About the Painting 2
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Detail from center panel
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