Paint-By-Number Gets Notoriety in U.S. Museum
Billie
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ridiculed in its heyday as a hobby for morons, the
paint-by-number fad that swept across America in the 1950s is being heralded in
an exhibition at the National Museum of American History.
Called ``Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s,'' it explores the
do-it-yourself art craze that filled homes with ''masterpieces'' created by
hobbyists with a gift for painting between the lines rather than originality.
``A number of people I talked to said: 'Are you guys crazy doing a
paint-by-number exhibition?', but this is quintessentially American and
reflects something very deep and interesting and obviously historic about our
culture and how it has developed over time,'' said Smithsonian Secretary
Lawrence Small at the opening of the exhibition this month.
``It proves that at the Smithsonian, while we never paint outside the lines, we
do paint outside the box,'' added Small.
The collection brings together completed and unfinished paint-by-number sets,
including the first design by artist Dan Robbins, who is believed to have
launched the craze in the 1950s with kits sold by the Palmer Paint Company in
Detroit.
Inspired By Leonardo Da Vinci
Robbins says he was inspired by Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da
Vinci, who assigned numbered portions of paintings to his assistants to
complete.
``I wondered whether da Vinci's methods might be useful for adults,'' said
Robbins in an interview.
His first attempt was called ``Abstract No. One'', which Robbins said his boss
hated, telling him abstracts were done by people who ``pretend they are artists
but can't paint a damn.''
But his boss liked the idea of marketing paint-by-number to adults and told
Robbins to experiment.
For his first paintings Robbins used 22 colors, building up to 300 a year
later. Five decades later, he still bumps into people who did his kits and says
all of them have ``war stories''. Frequently people ask him to autograph the
pictures but Robbins always insists they both sign them.
He agrees with critics who say paint-by-number is not art but says it gives
people ``the experience of art'' and may encourage them to go on to do original
work.
``What happens is it gives the individual a vicarious feeling of having created
art, very much like when you sing along with the Beatles or recite a Neil Simon
Play.''
His company's biggest seller was da Vinci's ``The Last Supper'', a
paint-by-number version of which is hanging in the exhibition.
History museum curator Larry Bird traveled the country to find good examples
for the exhibition, including a painting called ``Swiss Village'' done by FBI
(news - web sites) director Edgar Hoover.
Some people signed their works, and Bird said he purposefully chose many that
were not autographed only to find when he cleaned them that people had penned
their names.
One of the most famous ones in the exhibition was done in 1962 by Andy Warhol.
Called ``Do it Yourself (Flowers)'', the popular artist did not manage to
crayon inside the lines.
Bird said paint-by-number's adaptation by the pop art movement, led by Warhol,
scandalized the art world, which viewed the pastime as ludicrous.
What really infuriated critics, said Bird, was that people hung more of these
copied paintings in their homes than original art. ``I never did one myself but
I remember seeing it being done in a friend's basement and thought it was
really quite psychotic-looking.''
Collectors Mass Do-It-Yourself Art
Paint-by-number's popularity soared in the post-War period when people had more
disposable income and leisure time but was soon displaced in the 1960s by the
popularity of television.
``You could sit in front of a radio and paint-by-number but not in front of the
television,'' said Bird.
The paint-by-number phenomenon has attracted a host of collectors, including
graphic artist Trey Speegle from Brooklyn, whose home has become a gallery for
hundreds of the pictures.
Speegle says he has grouped together pictures according to subjects rather than
who painted them, putting dogs and cats on the ground floor, nudes -- which are
very rare -- in the bathroom and religious icons higher up in his brownstone.
``The whole point of the paint-by-number movement is that it doesn't really
matter who did them. They hang in my house from the top to the bottom,'' said
Speegle, who lent about 20 to the Smithsonian for the exhibition.
He buys them voraciously from the online auction site eBay, paying more than
$150 for the rarer or bigger ones.
``I wanted the Mona Lisa quite badly and so I paid $165 for it and $165 for two
nudes, which are hard to come by.''
Pointing to one of his paintings on show at the exhibition, he said it cost $5
but the frame was worth about $5,000.
For those involved in the industry, the exhibition has given their art form the
legitimacy it craved in the 1950s.
Bob Sanders, whose father created a company called Craftint Manufacturers, said
his father would have been very proud that paint-by-number had reached such
lofty heights.
``We were never looked at as true artists. This was looked down upon by the
fine artists but it caught the public by storm.''
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