Snow was piling up across Kansas on Sunday, but the fiery spirit of Lindsborg painter Mike Hartung burned through my phone as he described his latest exhibit.
Titled “Really? Do you really want to do this again?” the show includes seven paintings the industrious artist completed since the election (an eighth was in progress as we spoke). It also includes four previously unshown works featuring Hartung’s anti-muse: President-elect Donald Trump. As usual for Hartung, each canvas vibrates with bright colors, twisted figures and provocative political commentary.
“I realize only the winners get to write the books,” he told me, “but I just can’t believe this country is going to sit here and merrily walk down oligarch lane.”
My father and I had checked in with Hartung before the presidential election. He was brimming with nervous energy and presenting a show that featured Kansas political figures. After Trump’s victory on Nov. 5, the artist headed straight back into his workroom with an eye toward Inauguration Day.
He may not have liked the election outcome, but he had a job to do.
As painted by Hartung, Trump’s fleshy form focuses the eye. The past and future president shows off his dance moves atop a column, dresses like a schoolboy with disgraced Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and floats above a barren landscape on “Elon’s sand hovercraft.”
President Joe Biden hasn’t escaped his gimlet gaze. The departing leader uses a wheelchair in Hartung’s latest painting, which he hopes to complete soon.
“People were saying they thought he could have beat Trump,” he said. “And I thought those dumb son of a b****es, are you completely stupid? He should have gotten out at least a year ago, and Kamala would have had a chance.”
It hasn’t escaped the artist’s notice — or mine — that the wealthy and privileged have offered servile tribute to the incoming president. Technology and media tycoons have donated money, cut deals or otherwise shown their willingness to obey in advance.
“Everybody thinks, ‘Boy, if I just had a million dollars, I wouldn’t take s*** off anybody,” Hartung said. “These are the richest people in the world, and they’re on their knees to this clown. All that wealth, it’s very precarious, because the new God King could come along and take it all away.”
The latest victim appears to be Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes.
Her image, of wealthy men (and Mickey Mouse) paying obsequious tribute to a looming Trump, wouldn’t be out of place in a Hartung show. Telnaes’ editor rejected the cartoon after seeing a rough sketch, claiming it was redundant with other commentary. She believed it was because of the image’s content and resigned Friday night.
Editorial cartoonists, painters and all those who work in the visual realm wield tremendous power. Images seize viewers by the collar. Words scramble to keep pace. I’ve written about Trump’s authoritarian threat, Kansas politicians bending a knee and Derek Schmidt playing footsie with fascism. Each one of those columns would have shaken up more readers as a grotesque illustration.
“I don’t give a straw for your newspaper articles,” said 1870s political boss William Tweed about cartoonist Thomas Nast. “Most of my voters can’t read. But they can’t help seeing them damned pictures.”
I asked if Hartung feared retaliation or prosecution for his own indelible images. He guffawed in response.
“What are you going to do to me?” he asked. “I’m 80. I shouldn’t even be here. I should have died when I was young and pretty.”
The current show runs through Jan. 26 — six days after Trump assumes office — at the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center, 114 1/2 S. Main St. in Lindsborg. The gallery is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday. Hartung will give a talk at 2 p.m. Jan. 12, and an artist’s talk and reception will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 26.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: [email protected].
