Gift for Sad Moon 

Michael Parkes made this illustration, titled Gift for Sad Moon, using a delicate, precise technique, creating a dreamlike scene. The image evokes a nostalgia for earlier forms of illustration, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its whimsical imagery, a winged figure offering stars to a melancholic moon, also touches upon the late-modernist interest in psychological states. The harlequin-like figure, with its slightly archaic clothing, also conjures earlier performance traditions like commedia dell’arte. Parkes’s art does not directly critique social institutions, but, like much art of the late twentieth century, it reflects a broader interest in cultural history and the politics of imagery. One might look into popular culture, from literature to film, to find out more about these visual codes. The formal construction of Parkes's drawing can be better understood by considering the social conditions that shape artistic production.