Two Icons Behind Bars, 2019, oil and spray paint on canvas, 76cm x 76cm
Part of the Icon Series
A mixed media painting by the London based artist Robert Dunt. In this series of paintings by Robert, which he has called the Icon series, the artist wanted to work with powerful icons from history, politics and celebrity and combine them with colour and chaos.
His aim was to work with the icons without trying to give them a narrative, but to use them as purely visual shapes. Once he had used them as shapes a poetic unintended narrative would appear from the use of the paint.
In this picture Robert felt the Dollar icon image and the image of Marilyn vibrated together in a visually stunning way and by making crazy stories in your head. He thought that the polka dots actually looked liked the bars of a prison turned on their end so you were looking down them and they were imprisoning both the icon Marilyn and the icon of the Dollar.
The painting was first exhibited in London in 2018 at the LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair.
