[linda_22003]

I wonder if the "commentary" says what you think it does. I see a man who, by his dress and demeanor, is not someone you would expect to be interested in Jackson Pollock. But he is spending time with this painting, not hurrying by it - studying it, seeing what it might have to say to him.

[Antoninus]

I wonder if the "commentary" says what you think it does. I see a man who, by his dress and demeanor, is not someone you would expect to be interested in Jackson Pollock. But he is spending time with this painting, not hurrying by it - studying it, seeing what it might have to say to him.

You got it right on the nose. However, you're missing the irony. Rockwell was a realist painter who was constantly criticized during his lifetime and after for being outside the artistic mainstream and catering to popular tastes. A work like this, showing a realistic man looking at a splatter-junk painting is his reserved take on the modern art world. One can almost see the perplexed look on the face of the man in the suit, wondering what he's doing looking at this piece of garbage and trying really hard to appreciate it. After all, if it's hanging in a museum, it must be great art, right?

[AnAmericanMother]

But you don't know if what you think I'm thinking is what I'm actually thinking . . . < g >