Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Anthony Mastromatteo
"White Picket Fence (Aspirational Memoir)" inspired by Morison's The Bluest Eye

2023

$26,000
£19,801.82
€22,824.49
CA$36,373.82
A$40,881.77
CHF 21,290.15
MX$497,223.48
NOK 272,433.54
SEK 258,347.29
DKK 170,346.98
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

"White Picket Fence (Aspirational Memoir)" is inspired by Toni Morison's The Bluest Eye. The focal point is a bright green square, encased with a picket- fence made of white tape. Inside the square is an old page torn from a “Dick and Jane” reader. These books were prominent in public schools from the 1940’s through the 1960’s, shaping the minds of America’s youth for decades. The page shows a family, together tending to their garden. The text reads: “This is the family you are, that is as happy as can be, that lives in the house that father made.” Here he unveils the seeds of what became 20th Century American Dream. Meanwhile, outside the fence, is an ominous black void, and represents the rest of Morrison’s story, which centers on a black family in Lorain, Ohio not far from his own hometown. Mastromatteo realized that his life WAS like this idealized family in the clipping – happily living within his own white picket fence, unfamiliar with the struggles and suffering that occurs outside the fence. Here, he is asking What are the consequences of this mass marketed image of the American Dream? Does one care for neighbors who don’t resemble them visually? How is it possible that something as innocent as a “learn to read” book could engender racism? Would one rather live in ignorance to these disparities, inside the fence with their perfectly mown green lawn? Or should one cross the fence and venture into the black unknown area where they may be confronted with the reality of deeply discriminated against neighbors. What’s worse?
  • Creator:
    Anthony Mastromatteo (1970, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2023
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Sag Harbor, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: MAS-0066451stDibs: LU389313084422

More From This Seller

View All
"A Portrait of the Artist" oil painting surrealist lined notes and stamp letters
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
A clever oil painting and self portrait of the artist, Anthony Mastromatteo. Not only a capture of his likeness, but also a portrait of his interests, writing, storytelling, and doin...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Ouroboros (Regarding Creative Block)
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An infinite #2 pencil is depicted within eight square trompe l'oeil floating frames on a blank background. "Ouroboros" refers to the ancient symbol of the snake eating its own tail, ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

"There Is No Room For Subtle Things" trompe l'oeil oil painting of comic clips
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"There Is No Room For Subtle Things" is a trompe l'oeil oil painting of comic clips taped to a red wall. Recently, it feels like there is no room for complexity in our world. You e...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

"The Painting, As Seen by the Wall" an oil painting of a canvas, framed backward
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
One of the most confounding paintings in this exhibition is “The Painting, As Seen by the Wall”. Mastromatteo depicts a bare canvas, framed in reverse, turned-around. He presents the...
Category

2010s Post-Modern Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"I Believe in Ghosts" is a contemporary trompe l'oeil painting
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"I Believe in Ghosts" is a contemporary trompe l'oeil painting of words scrambled with Casper the Friendly Ghost. The ghost in this case is not just Casper the Friendly Ghost, howe...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Felix Culpa, or Must be a Woe - trompe l'oeil oil painting
By Anthony Mastromatteo
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Continuing his affinity for Malevich’s geometric paragon is Felix Culpa or ‘Must be a Woe,” this time, in red. Three red squares hover above Christ suffering on the cross—one of the most recognizable images in art history—yet here, no wooden cross is in sight. Christ simply floats against a white wall. The three “Red Squares” map the edges of the invisible crucifix, and an old violin...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

You May Also Like

Vintage American School Trompe L'Oeil Modernist Still Life Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Very nicely painted American school Trompe L'oeil still life painting. Finely executed with great detail. Signed. Framed. Ready to hang!
Category

1960s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Stacked Cakes, Blue on White (5 Layer)
By Gary Komarin
Located in Park City, UT
Born in New York City, the son of a Czech architect and Viennese writer, Gary Komarin is a risk taker in contemporary painterly abstraction. Komarin's stalwart images have an epic q...
Category

2010s Still-life Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
Framed: 11h x 16w in ABOUT THE ARTIST Adam Mysock was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1983 - the son of an elementary school English teacher and a lab technician who specializes in the...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Panel

Patch, White Paint on Wooden Board, Woodgrain, Golden Brown
By Brett Eberhardt
Located in Kent, CT
A patch of white paint adorns a wooden board with golden brown woodgrain, unexpectedly dramatic against a stark white wall. Signed, dated and titled on verso. Brett Eberhardt’s pain...
Category

2010s Contemporary Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

The Fence, Painting, Oil on Canvas
By Stephanie Berry
Located in Yardley, PA
This work is done with quality oils, cold wax, and netting on stretched linen. It evolved into a landscape type scene with what I see as an old fence. :: ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Outside of the Metaphysical Fence" by Kevin Paulsen
By Kevin Paulsen
Located in Nantucket, MA
With sinuous curves and elements of pink, this painting by noted New York artist Kevin Paulsen was created with tinted plaster and pigment on polystyrene, encased in a wooden shadowb...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Paintings

Materials

Polystyrene, Plaster, Paint