Existing comment:
Nelson Rockefeller as St. Francis of Assisi
1985
Color lithograph, Final State
Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979), governor of New York (1959-1973) and vice president under Gerald Ford (1974-1977), led a liberal Republican faction named "Rockefeller Republicans." On September 16, 1976, while campaigning for the new Ford/Dole Republican ticket in upstate New York, a group of hecklers from SUNY Binghamton flashed Rockefeller the middle finger, and he reciprocated in kind. This profane gesture was caught on camera and became known as the "Rockefeller Salute."
Oliphant's caricature plays with yet another reference to Rockefeller's bawdy gesture -- "flipping the bird" with one hand and raising his pinky on the other -- perhaps a reference to his reputation as a refined connoisseur of art. Using sinuous black lines of the grease pencil in the manner of Toulouse-Lautrec's nineteenth-century dance hall posters, Oliphant renders Rockefeller in profile dressed in a red and white striped shirt contemplating a bright blue bird perched upon his upraised middle finger. What could be more ironic? While St. Francis renounced his wealth and preached to birds, Rockefeller, scion of one of America's wealthiest families, arrogantly "gives the bird" to his constituents. |