George W. Bush, the Artist and the Apocalypse

Former US president George W. Bush (2001-2009) is immersing himself in the art world and has created some rather surprisingly interesting portraits of world leaders, most of them he encountered during his presidency, arguably the worst one ever in the US history.

Image source: George W. Bush Center

During his horrible and incompetent presidency, George W. Bush (GWB) was often criticized as an imbecile ninny occupying a high office due to his fabulous family connection - his father Georg Bush was the president of the US from 1989 to 1993.  To me, that argument was incorrect and way too benevolent.  GWB did many horrible things not due to his stupidity, but his fundamental believe in those horrible things.

To me, this painting of mine below, The Triumph of Saint George, created during the time he was drumming up the invasion of Iraq in 2003, reflects what he was; the painting also jump-started my ongoing Apocalypse Series, to commemorate the miseries of humankind.


Triumph of Saint George, Oil on Canvas, 48" x 30", 2003

GWB was surely not stupid, and to his credit that he started to learn to appreciate art in his retirement.  Too bad, nobody had convinced him before his political ascendency that his spending more time in his own studio and many museums, rather than in Oval Office, would have benefit the humanity more, much, much more.

It was just as tragic and regrettable as the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien's refusal to admit the artistically frustrated young Adolf Hitler.

C'est la vie.


Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- The Modern Art Iraq (Online) Archive
- Politics and Profits
- Herakles, not Hamlet
- "The Triumph of Saint George" (2003)
- My "Apocalypse Series" on Synchronized Chaos Webzine
- Tragedies of Our Time
- Thoughts on Originality
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"

"The Triumph of Saint George" (2003)

Not content to stay in his Texas ranch and chop the bushes, George W. Bush invaded our post-GWB era with a blitz of media event to promote his book.  This intense publicity brought back many bitter memories of that era devoid of human decency and humanity.

One good thing came out of that wreckage for me was a group of emotionally highly-charged, iconographically rich paintings, which formed the main body of my ongoing "Apocalypse Series".  Below is an excerpt from my statement for this series:

As a society, I wonder whether we have lost track of the human spirit. We live in a privileged time and place, with abundant materials to consume.  We are blessed with scientific understanding of the physical universe and we have been able to plant our national flag in the virgin soil of the moon.  But have we built the world we ought to live in?  As an artist and a human being I have serious doubts.  Can we truly be meant to be the masters of the earth, if reckless consumption, pollution, and mass extinction are the result of our mastery?  Will we destroy our own civilizations through irresponsible selfishness?  Will our extinction follow those of whales, tigers, foxes and dragonflies?

One of these paintings was a direct protest to George W. Bush's drumming up of invasion to Iraq - The Triumph of Saint George, a Cassandra's cry, deemed as traitorous by many at the time.  I saw burning oil fields, I saw nuclear bomb's explosions and skeletons of burned houses, I saw bones and skulls stacked up on which a triumph George W Bush flashed his derisive smirk.  He carried a large flag with coat of "Saint George" - red cross on white cloth.  On the banner's staff, he carried his trophy, a lump of monstrous object -- I couldn't deny his military might and I was sure that he would parade a trophy about, whatever it might be.

Whatever George W. Bush and his staunch supporters and apologists might justify for this atrocious actions against humanity and democracy, I, an American citizen grew up in a totalitarian China have this to say, complacency destroys democracy.  Though we yanked our country from the dangerous ant-democratic road GWB led us onto, we might slip back very easily.



>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part IX: My Self-Portraits
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List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

My "Apocalypse Series" on Synchronized Chaos Webzine

Last September, I participated an exhibition at Artist-Xchange Gallery in San Francisco and was contacted by Synchronized Chaos, "an interdisciplinary art, poetry, literary, science, nature, cultural issues, and travel writing webzine", inviting me to submit to their website.

After reviewing the sample of my website and my portfolio, Synch Chaos decided to publish my "Apocalypse Series" which is an on-going series commenced when the George W. Bush was drumming up to invade Iraq.

The article online ( http://synchchaos.com/?p=989 ) features nine paintings of mine from this series and the conception in its entirety.

I am so happy to be able to share this series with more people. Thank you, Synchronized Chaos!