David Pulpus, a seventeen year old St. Louis artist created the stunning acrylic depiction of the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. (above) which occurred two years ago in response to the police slaying of another black teenager, Michael Brown.
In selecting the painting as Missouri Congressional District # 1’s entry into this year’s United States Congressional Art Competition Democratic Representative Lacy Clay had these words of praise for the young artist.
(Bolds mine.)
“The painting portrays a colorful landscape of symbolic characters representing social injustice, the tragic events in Ferguson and the lingering elements of inequality in modern American society.”
The symbolism is complex in this work, as not only are the two police officers with guns drawn in the foreground depicted as boars, their armed response is clearly directed to a threatening black figure with a predatory wolf’s head and demonic tail. A black student, possibly symbolizing the artist himself, is crucified on the scales of justice, polarized black and white yin-yang symbols in the balance. A black police officer appears to be trying to lead a young black man, who appears ready to come to the aide of the wolf figure (while the black officer seemingly surveys the entire scene playing out with revulsion) away from the violence to safety. Black and white birds duel in aerial combat over the scene which is also overlooked by a rather detached and dispassionate incarcerated black man, his presence dominating the painting and who breaks the “forth wall”, clearly challenging the viewer to consider thoughtfully the work presented. A melancholy touch of irony balances the prisoner in the painting’s left top background, a bemused and perhaps bitter “Beauty Shop” sign that could provide a second title for the untitled work.