National Lampoon’s European Vacation 1985

Editor: So, here we have Boris Vallejo’s 1985 oil painting, “National Lampoon’s European Vacation.” It’s quite a fantastical, exaggerated scene! I'm immediately struck by the… intensity of the composition. There’s so much going on, the eye really doesn’t know where to settle. What strikes you when you first look at it? Curator: Immediately, I note the composition's imbalance, a deliberate act by the artist, no doubt. The muscular figure dominates, and then all around him these landmarks jut haphazardly with their mist-shrouded landscapes. Note how the arrangement disregards conventional perspective: how does the relative scale of Eiffel tower in relation to the big man with luggage strike you? Editor: That’s definitely weird. The Eiffel Tower seems much too close and small, everything’s competing for space. Is the overall effect intentionally chaotic? Curator: Chaos might be too simplistic a descriptor. Observe the painting style. It almost screams 'allegory' – observe, also, the almost cartoonish quality to it all. The lightning bolts feel unnatural, no? Yet they provide an organizational key here: it is an allegory about both chaos and control, mediated by these surreal events depicted. Look closely and trace these fault lines. It is interesting how light seems to play with themes central both the surreal and allegorical! Editor: That’s a helpful way to think about it! So it’s not *just* a crazy painting but a meditation of opposing ideas clashing against one another using the medium? Curator: Precisely. The medium dictates and delivers its message, here. The forms themselves hold symbolic weight far beyond the face-value of a film backdrop or surrealist landscape. The lightning for example—its brightness illuminating… what, precisely? It’s a semiotic tool, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Definitely something to ponder. Thank you. Now I can see beyond the initial “wackiness.” Curator: A worthwhile journey always involves multiple viewpoints. The wackiness as you termed it, as valid an entryway as any.