November 16, 2007
Photo of the Day: November 16, 2007
DC Cowgirl's photo of one of the statues outside of the Federal Trade Commission headquarters at 6th and Pennsylvania NW is an interesting look at one of my favorites among Washington's statuary. There are several reasons I like the statue, but most of them boil down to "that guy is hot." I also like how the horse looks so pissed off; the sculptor did a great job with the animal's expression. It's particularly compelling because the statue is so unique for D.C. It's rare to see such a communist aesthetic in these parts, and it's striking to find it on a federal building given our history with the Reds. It looks like someone needs to clean it though, huh? EXIF.
|
Advertisement: DCist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
The statue is called "Man Controlling Trade."
Just a dude, his horse and some rippling muscles. Nothing to see here...
I think you're confusing Social Realism with Socialist Realism. Plenty of examples of the former around town, like the gold-plated nekkid lady, man, and horsie on the Memorial Bridge. Both artistic movements tended to glorify the worker and were used as a facile means to motivate production. Stalin had his 5-Year-Plans, FDR had his National Recovery Act.
As voteprime pointed out, this is an analogy to the government controlling out of control capitalism. Since that's pretty much the mission of the FTC, it makes sense for it to have such a statue outside of it.
Yes, Social Realsim and Socialist Realism--two birds of the same feather. Both geared, as monkey says, toward motivating production. Reminds me of Baudrillard calling Marx boureois for his basically accepting many tenets of the capitalist mode of production as a good thing he thought should be put to better social use.
what was I saying?? oh yeah.. screw work.
www.tshirtinsurgency.com
Yep. Total hotness on that statue. And the guy ain't bad either.
What?
Shouldn't that be "Man Controlling Rough Trade?"
I mean, both the dude and the horse are bareback. And the guy looks like he's soiling himself in anticipation. Ladies, let that be a warning to you. When you don't take care of your husband's needs in the boudoir, they end up with pants full of scat and banging horse statues.