# What would you choose as your "message painting"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** arts-crafts\ **Created:** [February 22, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949 "2022-02-22T13:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/1 "2022-02-22T13:39:07Z")
Inspired by [these](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-president-how-do-you-decorate-the-oval-office/958248/31) [threads](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-choice-of-background/959769/2), I was curious what Dopers would choose from any painting in the art world to hang behind them at their first televised speech as World Boss. I feel like [Saturn Devouring His Son](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son) would certainly make people sit up and take notice. EDIT: Thank you for the addition of the tag, mods. I will promise to do better. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/2 "2022-02-22T13:48:00Z")
I’m in charge of the whole world? Munch’s _The Scream_. [![](https://www.edvardmunch.org/images/paintings/the-scream.jpg) ](https://www.edvardmunch.org/images/paintings/the-scream.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/3 "2022-02-22T14:00:36Z")
It can just be your own nation, if you like. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/4 "2022-02-22T14:40:37Z")
I too came to post _The Scream_, but I’d hang John Munch’s interpretation of his brother Edvard’s iconic piece. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/5 "2022-02-22T15:23:43Z")
> **[Hell by Hieronymus Bosch](https://www.thehistoryofart.org/hieronymus-bosch/hell/)** > > Hell painting by Hieronymus Bosch - read a detailed analysis of this artwork. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/6 "2022-02-22T15:34:37Z")
Dogs Playing Poker ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/7 "2022-02-22T16:38:02Z")
A huge refrigerator door, with kids’ crayon drawings on it. Maybe I’d go for an “All The Children Of The World” vibe, or maybe whichever kids do the funniest pictures of dogs pooping. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/8 "2022-02-22T16:42:32Z")
Synchronized elimination. Canine Olympics. [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/SLhM3Kj.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/SLhM3Kj) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/9 "2022-02-22T17:01:28Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/10 "2022-02-22T17:02:10Z")
Pollice Verso. (bonus!: it’s here in the Phoenix Art Museum. Easy to get.) [![](https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/images-profile-flow/400/images-medium-large-5/pollice-verso-war-is-hell-store.jpg) ](https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/images-profile-flow/400/images-medium-large-5/pollice-verso-war-is-hell-store.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/11 "2022-02-22T17:16:35Z")
I’d pick a Kandinsky. Maybe this one. My message would be _“Don’t bother trying to make sense of this wacko place where we are.”_ [![](https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/images/works/50.jpg) ](https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/images/works/50.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/12 "2022-02-22T17:34:52Z")
Just to throw another weird one in the pot: [Beard baby!](https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/portrait-of-a-boy-with-a-long-beard) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/13 "2022-02-22T20:10:31Z")
[https://www.google.com/search?q=landscape+grant+wood+paintings&tbm=isch&hl=en-US&rlz=1C9BKJA\_enUS856US869&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjh0YuPjpT2AhWFrGoFHUnZB6gQrNwCKAB6BQgBELcD&biw=1366&bih=897#imgrc=3oP\_EsK1lIV2oM](https://www.google.com/search?q=landscape+grant+wood+paintings&tbm=isch&hl=en-US&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS856US869&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjh0YuPjpT2AhWFrGoFHUnZB6gQrNwCKAB6BQgBELcD&biw=1366&bih=897#imgrc=3oP_EsK1lIV2oM) “Young Corn”. Grant Wood ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/14 "2022-02-22T20:57:03Z")
Nothing says “I’m of the People” like a Grant Wood (except Amer. Gothic). ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/15 "2022-02-22T21:13:52Z")
> **[Pierre Roy. Danger on the Stairs. 1927 or 1928 | MoMA](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78972)** > > Pierre Roy. Danger on the Stairs. 1927 or 1928. Oil on canvas. 36 x 23 5/8" (91.4 x 60 cm). Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. 142.1935. Painting and Sculpture ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/16 "2022-02-22T21:20:40Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Nothing says “I’m of the People” like a Grant Wood I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his studio was and where he lived a good portion of his early productive adulthood. He taught in my junior high, there were borders he did in some of my classrooms and “Young Corn” hung in my school library. I spent hours a week absorbing his art. I thought every junior high student in America was surrounded by world class art like I was. My first eight years were spent living 7 miles from Stone City, Iowa, another masterpiece of his. The landscape looked like that and I played in the Wapsipinicon River that runs through it. A print of “Stone City” has hung over my fireplace mantel for the last 49 years. Glancing at it is like going home again. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/17 "2022-02-22T21:26:09Z")
I’m now dictator of the planet? I think this would be appropriate: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e5/2f/fb/e52ffb3c91f464b01be373c4634862ca.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e5/2f/fb/e52ffb3c91f464b01be373c4634862ca.jpg) The Palette of Narmer, dating to 3500 BC and depicting the establishment of the first Egyptian dynasty to unite the Upper and Lower Nile. It might be the founding emblem of civilization itself: obey the government or die. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/18 "2022-02-22T21:38:31Z")
[![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/49O75jK.jpeg "Imgur: The magic of the Internet") ](https://imgur.com/49O75jK) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/19 "2022-02-22T21:47:45Z")
[![](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2020/07/Caravaggio-Judith-Beheading-Holofernes-circa-1598%E2%80%931599-or-1602.-Collection-of-the-Galleria-Nazionale-dArte-Antica-at-Palazzo-Barberini-Rome-1024x756.jpg) ](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2020/07/Caravaggio-Judith-Beheading-Holofernes-circa-1598%E2%80%931599-or-1602.-Collection-of-the-Galleria-Nazionale-dArte-Antica-at-Palazzo-Barberini-Rome-1024x756.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2022, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949/20 "2022-02-23T08:45:41Z")
Rothko’s _Untitled (Black on Grey)_. Or Newman’s _Black Fire I_ Just to let the people know what they’re in for. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-choose-as-your-message-painting/959949.md?page=2)