this article in the December 1969 edition of US Vogue where they compare scenes from woodstock to famous paintings absolutely made my day – perhaps for obvious reasons. why can’t vogue still be like this?
All nature is but art, unknown to thee; / All chance, direction, which thou eanst not see.” Except you can. As clearly as you can see the sunlit discipline of Seurat you can see direction on those rare, risked occassions when an event slips it man-made plans and becomes a phenomenon, pulling order, unexpected, from chaos – and, at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, from muf. “Gettysburg,” they called it. A plague of people. A slough. A three-day anguish that no one who was there regrets: Hundreds of thousands of kids come together to enjoy each other in the presence of music, and of peace. They knew about art and nature what Alexander Pope wrote in 1773. They lived for a weekend in the still eye of a hurricane.
please note that i did not make these comparisons myself, i have simply recreated the image comparisons from the original magazine article in higher resolution for your viewing pleasure.
seurat – a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte
manet – le déjeuner sur l’herbe
gauguin – spirit of the dead watching
vogue scans courtesy of youthquakers
