Curatorial notes
Editor: This is an undated oil painting, “Coca-Cola advertisement” by Haddon Hubbard Sundblom. I immediately get this…almost surreal feeling, like something out of a dream, with the bright colours. It is like someone painted an ideal lifestyle. What strikes you most when you look at it? Art Historian: Ah, yes! You hit on something interesting – "surreal feeling." Tell me, does the coupling of roses and a six-pack feel...natural to you? It reminds me of waking up from a pleasant dream to find myself surrounded by relics of my childhood, yet the perspective is… different. The soft realism lends a patina of the ideal to something so overtly commercial. A trick of light and emotion? Editor: So you're saying it's like it takes a commercial object and almost…elevates it? Makes it more appealing through the art style? Art Historian: Exactly. Think about what we associate roses with – love, beauty, the ephemeral. Then contrast that with a mass-produced product. What are we really selling here? Happiness? Nostalgia? Notice how light dances on those bottles. There's also the fact that Sundblom created the modern Santa Claus. The roses almost have an erotic, decadent feel when combined with such an overtly 'American' image as Coke. You could also ponder why such soft light graces something so overtly capitalist, yes? Is the aesthetic quality the dream, or the consumer object itself? Editor: I guess I hadn't thought of it like that. It's more complex than just an ad; it's a comment, or maybe a seduction through imagery. Art Historian: A seduction indeed, into a specific type of lifestyle and beauty. Now I'm thinking about a Coke, with roses... and I wasn't before. Thanks for expanding my appreciation of advertising art, it is always surprising where true innovation exists.