Paint by number: anonymous work from mid-20th century America
December 04, 2009
Paint By Number, the craze of the 1950's, swept the nation in the era of Eisenhower, Levittown, post war prosperity and a post war concept of leisure time.
Paint By Number, Paris In The Rain
Most of the Paint By Number sets of the fifties and early sixties depicted nostalgic scenes, historic and pastoral landscapes, adorable or noble animals, sentimental glimpses of "exotic" cultures as well as copies from the canon of romanticized European figurative art. Critics at the time were disgusted with the mechanized mass produced nostalgia.
Paint By Number, Mona Lisa
But now, with our vantage point from the 21st Century, these vernacular, anonymous painting have acquired the patina of age and distance. Have they have acquired the aura that Walter Benjamin wrote about in his famous 1935 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Or are we just nostalgic for the more innocent nostalgia of the 50's. Are we caught up in second or third order nostalgia. Probably both.
Paint By Number, original box, Craftint color set. Photo Liza Cowan
In August 2007, Pine Street Art Works held an exhibition of over 100 Paint By Number paintings. It took months to acquire them, mostly on eBay. In addition to enjoying the paintings, I was fascinated by the subversive allure - the tension created between the pleasure of viewing the work, and the original and ongoing horrified responses by the gatekeepers of High Culture.
Paint By Number, Exhibition at Pine Street Art Works. Postcard design Liza Cowan. Paint by Number set based on a painting by Norman Rockwell.
Although Paint By Number has been the subject of a show at the Smithsonian (as well as here at PSAW) and show up regularly in design magazines and blogs, there is still the vacillating response: are we allowed the pleasure we get from looking at, or making, these paintings?
Mad Magazine, September 1958, spoofed the craze with a PBN of Alfred E. Newman. PSAW ephemera collections.
Paint By Number, Farm By The River.
Paint By Number, Bullfighter
Paint By Number exhibition at Pine Street Art Works. August 2007
All the paintings in this post were in the 2007 exhibit. All are sold.