Who You/Yeah Baby

Name/Title

Who You/Yeah Baby

Entry/Object ID

2008.81

Description

Collage of Uncle Sam, other male figures and painted text.

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil collage on canvas

Acquisition

Notes

Collection of DePaul Art Museum, Art Acquisition Endowment

Made/Created

Artist

Arnold, Ralph

Date made

circa 1968

Ethnography

Notes

North America, United States, Chicago

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Inscription

Lexicon

Legacy Lexicon

Class

PAINTINGS

Dimensions

Dimension Description

canvas

Width

24 in

Length

30 in

Dimension Description

Frame

Width

24-5/8 in

Depth

1-3/8 in

Length

30-5/8 in

Exhibitions

Fires Will Burn: Politically Engaged Art from the Permanent Collection
Re:Chicago
The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity & Politics

Interpretative Labels

Label

With the US Army recruitment icon Uncle Sam in close proximity to a coterie of male dandies appropriated from mainstream advertising, "Who You/Yeah Baby" produces a queer subtext that is reinforced by the work's humorously propositional title. Located within an otherwise abstract canvas of stripes and patterns, the collage also offers a subtly calculated dig at the white, heteronormative masculinity typically associated with abstract formalism in the middle of the twentieth century. —from "The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity & Politics"