Little Boy Blue
Little Boy Blue © Mark Ryden (2004)
Best Interpretation: “What blue there is is steel, is lead. Eyes that rhyme with ice, the tricycle spoke-lessness is misplaced: a dialogue of emptiness and speak back to the spooky jagged wheels on his hat, his shoulder. What light touches the spongey cheeks leaves snowman’s pallor and the brow less-child than shadow, less man than teenaged tug-of-war between deepest sorrow and untouchable hate.” (…) -A.S. Kartsonis
Issue Jan 2007
Contemporary
7 Responses to “Little Boy Blue”
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This is a disturbing picture. A classic childrens’ book style is undermined by a leaden sky, the accusing blue eyes and the pale, pale skin of the little nazi boy. A boy who seems very girlish in his blue shoes, luger, and pink outfit. His look is anything but nice though.
His retro tricycle and the overall coloring make the piece feel like it is from an older era.
We know we would be freaked out if we saw this kid coming down the lane, we’d wonder if we hadn’t just been landed in some horror movie about Hitler clones being raised in some suburban neighborhood just around the corner.
What blue there is is steel, is lead. Eyes that rhyme with ice, the tricycle spoke-lessness is misplaced: a dialogue of emptiness and speak back to the spooky jagged wheels on his hat, his shoulder. What light touches the spongey cheeks leaves snowman’s pallor and the brow less-child than shadow, less man than teenaged tug-of-war between deepest sorrow and untouchable hate. The boy carries a bath of anemia, a wave of whiteness that crests against and washes out the horizon, his body and motion: a bleaching agent on three wheels. In the background a tree, a house that would seem stylized but suggest a starvation, their lean lines all elegance and emaciated beyond any way of sheltering. The pastels are a trick of whimsy, a slow-arriving knowing that even the light here is evil.
The “Swastika”, although a positive symbol of peace, joy, and good luck in old cultures such as in India, Japan, Tibet, China… It was converted to ideology power and racism towards Jews and other cultures as a result of past Germanic Nazism, brought out by Hitler in WWII. The Swastika is a profoundly disturbing image in the Western world, converted from good to negative. Mark Ryden in his unique way has shown this transformation through a little boy.
I find this painting to be extremely beautiful, the way the painter captures the contrast of evil and good. A child, innocently growing up in an environment set by his parents. Unknowing of what he is representing because he is born into a regime, a way of life. Unaware and innocent, he reflects what is imposed to him. It reminds me of those who are born to be Catholics, in that family ambience obligating you to be something you may not be. As we grow older we end up becoming something we are not, or out grow it if we choose differently.
A cold glare demands our response as we count down to a murder: Four… there are four points to the swastika and four corners to a painting. How do we interpret the contents within ? How do we see the swastika ? Buddhist symbol of peace from the East or racist cross of cruelty from the West ? How do we react to the nazi child on a tricycle ? Does this play with or exploit history ? Three… there are of course three wheels on a tricycle, and three—in the western imagination—represents the trinity, the religious foundation of western culture, the vehicle that motivates so many lives. In Nazi Germany, however, this religious superstructure was merely a toy, a plaything. Two… there are two cute shoes framed by the front wheel. In isolation these would appear very innocent but here they are suspended at the expense of the artist’s composition. One… One child. One gun. One house in the background. The dead body of a Buddhist monk with a single bullet wound in the head lies in the house as the killer slowly rides to church. What are you gonna do about it ? his expression asks us. Oh but I’m so cute, he mutters under his breathe.
“Eyes that rhyme with ice… dialogue of emptiness… bath of anemia…” Woof! Ms. Kartsonis — I’ll read your poetic interpretations anyday!
I see this image a lot lately. But it’s not a Blue Boy what I see, it’s a child from either South America, or Africa holding a gun at a very early age beutifully immortalized in “City of God” and now in the series “City of Men”. Seeing this image I do wonder…Time’s haven’t changed much have they? It does crack me up somehow although I know It’s a funny way of depicting the lost of innocence, and the idea of being caught up in a place where your chances of survival depend on operating a hand gun…even at an early age. I find it amusing, the way It’s depicting the irony of trying to be “normal” though you can’t ; Because even though you are a kid riding your tricycle in Pleasantville—Germany, you need to carry your gun just in case. I guess kids can’t be kids in some places uh?
This is me, a 1955 baby, burdened with and a product of a terrible war. What did we know - and for some reason we played, we played out a war that our parents lived through. We became the nazis on our tricycles, The psychoanalysis is too deep for this review. The pink swastika - watering down red - where nazi ideas in pre-war America were prevalent and were drowned-out and silenced after the war. And yet as children growing up in a post-war environment these symbols and ideas were part of our environment. My neighbour’s dad kept his nazi prizes in the trunk of his car. An SS dagger, or somehow, I would inherit some Oberst’s insignias. WWII was over and yet, so pesent in the 60’s. I will stop here but this painting, if the artist lived-out the same circumstances as I did, a post-WWII child playing-out wars on his tricycle - is awesome!