SET OF 5 x CLASSIC DOG SNOOKER/POOL PRINTS BY ARTHUR SARNOFF**

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Thanks to Dogs Playing Poker, painter Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (a.k.a. C.M. Coolidge) has earned the dubious distinction of being called “the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of.” But while critics might sniff at his contribution to the art world, the history of his greatest works is rich. 1. Dogs Playing Poker is actually a series of paintings. Auction notes from the Doyle event explain, “The [paintings’] sequential narrative follows the same ‘players’ in the course of a hand of poker. In the first ( A Bold Bluff), our main character, the St. Bernard, holds a weak hand as the rest of the crew maintains their best poker faces. In the following scene ( Waterloo: Two), we see the St. Bernard raking in the large pot, much to the very obvious dismay of his fellow players.” 9. Not all of the Dogs Playing Poker series fit the name. The works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour, and Paul Cézanne are often cited as influences on how Coolidge posed his canine card players. 14. The art elite still give Dogs Playing Poker no respect. Maybe that sounds silly. What do plays like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Streetcar Named Desire have in common with these kitsch masterpieces? According to New York Times contributor James McManus, these works share similar views on sexual politics: “Men drink, bellow, smoke and play poker. The women who serve them … their game is to tame the bad boys.” The animated television series The Simpsons has made several references to the paintings, such as in " Treehouse of Horror IV" (1993) when Homer is driven to screaming insanity simply by looking at the surrealness of the painting. [7]

The cover of the 1981 album, Moving Pictures by Rush, features A Friend in Need as one of the three pictures being moved. Over the years, Dogs Playing Poker has infiltrated our popular culture, with references to the work popping up everywhere from a Snoop Dogg music video to the beloved Disney Pixar film Up . So, what’s the story behind these iconic paintings? This article will guide you through Coolidge’s collection and explain why these poker-playing dogs continue to entertain us. How many paintings are in the collection? The 1998 season four episode "Sinking Ship" of the TV series NewsRadio spoofs the 1997 film Titanic. As the characters are shown fleeing the sinking ship/broadcasting studio they dump famous artworks but hold on to a Dogs Playing Poker, which a character claims is a "great picture". This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Coolidge’s earliest explorations of dog paintings were made for cigar boxes. Then, in 1903, the 59-year-old artist started working for the “remembrance advertising” company Brown & Bigelow. From there, he began churning out works like A Bold Bluff , Poker Sympathy , and Pinched With Four Aces , which were reproduced as posters, calendars, and prints, sometimes as parts of promotional giveaways. 2. The most popular of these paintings is of dogs cheating at poker.Dogs Playing Poker is the collective title for a series of 18 paintings. The first, Poker Game , was self-standing for almost ten years, until the Minnesota-based publishing company Brown & Bigelow commissioned Coolidge to create 16 oil paintings to advertise cigars in 1903. Of these 16, nine feature dogs playing poker – in the remaining seven, they enjoy other (distinctly dog-unfriendly) activities such as ballroom dancing, appearing in court, and reading the mail.

You should have plenty of space for your table. One problem is that guys see that 22' x 16' is the minimum size room for a full size table. They use this as a guide. Remember that that is the MINIMUM size. At that you will get a chair in the corner and not much else! In a 2000 episode of the TV series That '70s Show, " Hunting", Dogs Playing Poker is parodied by the characters taking the places of the dogs. In the 1994 "School Daze" episode of Living Single Overton brings a print of A Bold Bluff into art class and comments on the "obviousness" of the bulldog's bluff.

Who was Cassius Marcellus Coolidge?

In the 1970s, kitsch was king, and demand for Dogs Playing Poker hit its peak—which made the pooches readily available in various affordable forms. Or, as art critic Annette Ferrara put it, “These signature works, for better or worse, are indelibly burned into the subconscious slide library of even the most un-art historically inclined person through their incessant reproduction on all manner of pop ephemera: calendars, t-shirts, coffee mugs, the occasional advertisement.” 6. They could be seen as a sort of self-portrait. In an episode of White Collar, art expert and main character Neal Caffrey jokes about hanging a DPP on a wall. Chrysler Director William Hennessey was quoted as saying, “There’s long been a spirited debate in scholarly circles about the position of canine art within the canon. I believe it is now time for these iconic images to assume their rightful place on the walls of our institutions where homo-centric art has too long been unjustly privileged.”

Throughout the United States, the paintings have become classic examples of kitsch decoration – repeatedly reproduced, referenced, and modified, both as a bit of a joke and as pop culture’s homage to Coolidge. As the art critic Annette Ferrara puts it, Coolidge is ‘the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of’ whose works have imprinted themselves on ‘even the most un-art historically inclined person’. The collection was completed in 1910, when Coolidge painted Looks Like Four Of A Kind and brought the total number of artworks to 18. How were the paintings received? a b c McManus, James. "Play It Close to the Muzzle and Paws on the Table", The New York Times (December 3, 2005).Some have often compared Coolidge’s A Friend in Need with English artist Sir Edwin Landseer’s painting, Laying Down the Law(1840). Both feature dogs gathered around pensively, acting like people—card-players in Coolidge’s work and lawyers in Landseer’s—however, Coolidge’s painting portrays a much lighter and comical spirit compared to Landseer’s more serious, solemn tone. These painting, which were commissioned for commercial use, are regarded most often as kitsch, art that is basically bad to the bone. Recounting the highbrow opinion of these pieces, Poker News’s Martin Harris explained, “For some the paintings represent the epitome of kitsch or lowbrow culture, a poor-taste parody of ‘genuine’ art.” 5. The paintings became a staple in working class home décor anyway. In 2002, 92-year-old Gertrude told The New York Times that she and her mother were more cat people than dog lovers, but she admitted, “You can’t imagine a cat playing poker. It doesn't seem to go.” 12. Dogs Playing Poker have been compared to Tennessee Williams’s plays. I find three small oil filled radiators will keep a table playing well and the cloth dry. rather than the tube heaters just under the slate. It was I who mentioned the power point under the table. Of course what Geoff said is 100% correct. (He has forgotten more about tables than most of us will ever know). It is useful, though, for under table heating. My room is quite large (no pun intended, Geoff) so the power under the table is a good idea for the iron.

In the 2020 Ray Donovan season seven episode "Passport and a Gun", Jim Sullivan rewards young Ray for his successful debut as a debt collector with a valued and framed copy of A Friend in Need.In the 2006 film Barnyard, there is a scene with some dogs from the farm playing poker while a mouse paints A Friend in Need while watching them. Dogs Playing Poker". Ooo Woo– Complete Dog Resource. 2008. Archived from the original on April 11, 2017 . Retrieved September 1, 2006. Whether you love them or hate them, Dogs Playing Poker have become some of the most iconic paintings in America. Just be sure not to follow the example of Coolidge’s (obviously cheating) dogs when you play your own poker games. Categories In an episode of Animaniacs, a young Pablo Picasso's artistic frustration is demonstrated by his producing a DPP painting.