Monday, July 12, 2010

Any Images of Smoking in Art?

While in Ripley, OH today, I also visited the Ohio Tobacco Museum. The museum features the history of tobacco farming , the handling of tobacco and lots of memorabilia, such as cigarette packs, matchbooks, cigars, pipes, ashtrays and marketing materials. I remember when the act of smoking was removed from cigarette advertisements. There was a short period of time when almost all television and film characters did not smoke. It was as if everyone quit smoking at the same time. Yet the presence of tobacco and smoking is pretty heavy in our history and culture.

While touring this small museum housed in a 2-story brick house, I tried to recall where smoking finds a place in fine art. I thought of Kirchner's Self-Portrait as a Soldier.
A couple that have been pointed out to me:

@taftmuseum: We have a "smoking lounge" with 3 in 1 room, including this one. http://bit.ly/bo4dTI

@emefem: The Whistling Boy by Duveneck at the CAM. Also Jean Leon Gerome, orientalist painter, has several with hookahs. Does that count?

@theartmuse: Picasso's drawing of a man smoking a pipe and Manet's Indian woman smoking come to mind.

Any others?

Are there others?


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3 comments:

Dania said...

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=1&page=1&f=Highlight&cr=152

Roderick Vesper said...

Sally Mann: http://blog.art21.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Sally-2.jpg

Tony Oursler:
http://www.tonyoursler.com/images/big/faurschou_10_cigarettes_big.jpg

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Van Gogh's smoking skeleton, just about the best anti-smoking painting ever made (although I'm not sure he intended it that way):

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=1628&lang=en

- T.L. Muente