The Painter of The Age

At the beginning of the first Trump administration, I began a project to capture moments of historic significance “in the manner of the most relevant painter of the age, George W. Bush.” Well, that project got gigantic and depressing as hell very fast.

But nothing in the intervening years has changed my view, though, of George W. Bush, who, in addition to giving us this Supreme Court, remains the most relevant painter of our age.

I was not surprised, neither was I pleased—it’s not the kind of thing you can take much comfort in—to learn via Chris Rusak, that Bluesky art critic @dickius.bsky.social shared the same view.

trademark george w bush painting of a hideous looking henry kissinger, with white and blue hair, splotchy skin that somehow evokes trump's terrible application of makeup in real life, droopy ears, massive jowls, no neck, with kissinger looking off to his left. this was copied from a photo of the very very old kissinger, but i'm not going to look it up. bush included it in his book, of many, one, america's immigrants. in case anyone wanted evidence that alien war criminals are indeed invading our country, they'd have started here but that's never the point is it.

Responding to a prompt for a painting of the age, dickius skeeted, “This painting by G. Walker Bush. It really captures an era defined by the worst people on earth getting away with their crimes — indeed, being rewarded for them.”

In February 2020, weeks after Biden’s inauguration, I went to see Bush’s paintings in person at the Kennedy Center. I wondered then about whether the world would be better off with more paintings like this in it. Today, I can’t imagine a better fit.