☆

as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now.”

small talk isn’t to get to know a person. it’s just a greeting to affirm you’re buddies in the universe.

Art presented without further comment:

artists (the OP is by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th c) : F. Gordeev 1769, Cornelius Cort 1566, Bernard Picart 1733, Enrico Barberi 1893, Luca Giordano 1660, Grigorij Mihajlov 1819, Jacob Jordaens 1640, Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair 1819, Johann Heinrich Fuseli 1781-1785, John Singer Sargent c. 1921, John Singer Sargent 1921, Kaspar von Zumbusch 1880, Josep Campeny i Santamaria, Juan Manuel Ferrari 1952, Peter Paul Rubens 1610s, Nicolas-Sébastien Adam 1762, unknown (Prometheus Vase) 1867, Pavel Wenig 1892

Aaand switch bonus: "Prometheus Strangling the Vulture" by Jacques Lipchitz (1943)

It's this piece, titled The Banality of the Banality of Evil. Because on first glance, you're like. Yeah, okay, it's obvious what it's saying. Even nazis, even evil people can appreciate beauty, too. But then you learn its name, and suddenly the interpretation shifts a bit. The idea that evil is banal has in itself become banal. my first response to seeing a nazi on a bench is "oh it's about the banality of evil" and not "jesus christ there's a nazi on the bench."

what I find really interesting is how the way this is drawn (especially considering who drew it) the art style seems extremely deliberate. This type of nostalgic landscape painting is very reminiscent of nazi art and specifically, Hitler's art.

Nazis were extremely judgmental of "entartete Kunst" (degenerate art). Bansky's usual work very well fall into this category! So for him to go for this style of painting in particular is another choice I find very interesting, because I can see some people react to this painting with some variation of "oh, I didn't know he could actually draw! I thought he is a hack but he is a real artist!" - and that is where they would agree with the Nazis.