from humor scholars extraordinaire - the Nilsens

1. 1
HUMOR IN ART
and Architecture
(shortened version)
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. Public Art: A Cockney in London
2

3. Escher Sketch
A Parody of Art
3

4. Picasso and Rhodan
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5. 5
HUMOROUS ARCHITECTURE
• In Time magazine’s 1997 year-end summary of the
“best” and the “worst” accomplishments, editors
devoted a half-page to a twilight photo of the New
York New York hotel, advertised as “the Greatest
City in Las Vegas.” They wrote:
• “O.K., it’s a hoot, a building that’s made to look like
a jumble of buildings. This massive Las Vegas hotel
with a ‘Central Park-themed’ casino takes as its
silhouette the Manhattan skyline and for good
measure crams in Grant’s Tomb, Ellis Island and the
Statue of Liberty. Did we mention the Coney Island
roller coaster?”
• “Tasteless, you say? We say, beyond tasteless.”

6. New York, New York
in Las Vegas, Nevada
6

7. Here is another wonderful example of
humor in architecture—Tempe’s Upside
Down Pyramid built for our City Hall.
7

8. Here’s an
example of a
waterfall that
serves as its
own source.
8

9. His reptiles appear to crawl off the page and
change into living creatures.
9

10. Self Portrait, Escher Style
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11. 11
SALVADOR DALI (1904-1989)
He depicted dream worlds in which commonplace objects
were juxtaposed, deformed, or metamorphosed into bizarre
and irrational distortions.

12. Notice how the
perspective changes
when the picture is
viewed from the side.
• At the same time Dali
was distorting objects,
he was filling them with
realistic details and
placing them into bleak,
sunlit landscapes
reminiscent of his
Catalonian homeland.
• From this angle we are
less likely to recognize
the people sitting in the
sand.
12

13. Impressionism:
Van Gogh’s Starry Night
and David Wiesner’s Art and Max
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14. Expressionism
Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and Keane’s “Big Eyes”
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15. Abstrace Expressionism
Jackson Pollock (Jack the Dripper)
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16. Minimalism
Brancusi’s “Bird in Flight”
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17. Maximalism (Gothic Cathedral)
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18. Dadaism or “Found” Art
Du Champs’s “Fountain”
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19. Realism: Norman Rockwell’s
“Freedom from Want”
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20. 20
In Conclusion, Le Louvre: A
Story

21. 21
• A thief in Paris planned to steal some
paintings from Le Louvre.
• He stole the paintings and put them in his
van, but his van ran out of gas.
• When asked how he could mastermind
such a crime and then make such a stupid
mistake, he replied:

22. 22
I had no Monet

23. 23
To buy Degas

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To make the Van Gogh

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I figured I had nothing Toulouse

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…and I had De Gaulle to try it.