Brute Femme Propaganda

This by far is my most favorite propaganda image. Norman RockwellNorman Rockwell's interpretation of Rosie the Riveter, as a feminine powerhouse that symbolized the women's place in the World War II U.S. workforce on the May 29, 1943 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Since I am and have been an artist most my life. I particularly have always been drawn to propaganda imagery. Not only because of the political implications that drive the artists' vision/idea themselves but the sometimes hidden subliminal messages or blunt suggestive implications the viewer most times does not realize immediately, blah blah blah art history crap blah blah...

In this particular oil painting, Rosie is sitting on a girder post on her lunch break, in front of a muted U.S. Flag, a riveting gun on her lap, an all American bologna sandwich in her hand and a radded copy of Mein Kampf as a foot rest ...(if you don't know what this book is... You need more history classes). Mr. Rockwell's version of Rosie is posed as an obvious "homage" to MichelangeloMichelangelo's fresco of the prophet Isaiah from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (being an art student sometimes pays off with descriptors. Most of the time it is just unused information.)

Now I am not going to go over all the smaller details N.R. has embedded into this piece, the suggestiveness and implication symbols riddled through it. You can look up that on-line yourself. What I will summarize is this, though truthfully this imagery (as a whole) did not become mainstream until the 80's with it's wide media popularity, it holds a very important grasp on the female perception in our country and the views it inspires with them.

...and in my opinion, the Westinghouse company couldn't even begin to touch the iconic female "brute-grace" that Rockwell captured.