Acupuncture Pitchfork Style

John William ("Uncle Jack") Dey, Acupuncture Pitchfork Style, ca. 1974, model airplane enamel on wood, 23 x 36 in. (58.5 x 91.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 1997.124.12

Artwork Details

Title: Acupuncture Pitchfork Style
Artist: John William ("Uncle Jack") Dey
Date: ca. 1974
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 23 x 36 in. (58.5 x 91.5 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums: enamel
Mediums Description: model airplane enamel on wood
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Animal — horse
Object — other — sign
Architecture Exterior — domestic — farmhouse
Landscape — farm
Animal — bird
Figure group
Object Number: 1997.124.12
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1997.124.12

Artwork Description

In this painting, "Uncle Jack" Dey combined his memories of the Maine landscape with imagined characters to create a surreal, confusing world. A man with a ladle hangs from a kite string over a vat of "Mince Pie Mix with Rum," while a woman in a short blue dress attacks him with a pitchfork. Dey filled the sky with blackbirds to emphasize the ominous activities of this woman and her "exotic pies." (Tom Patterson, Contemporary Folk Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001)