While we don’t yet know when the new Tubman $20 bill could be released, the Biden administration has made the new note a priority. Also in this week’s issue:
Shepard Fairey made a portrait of Joe Biden
Why the Internet ❤️ the Bernie Wearing Mittens Sitting in a Chair meme
Street artist and Obama Hope creator Shepard Fairey has released a new portrait of President Joe Biden. The portrait sets Biden against dueling backdrops as a statement on the dangers fossil fuels and includes a question: “President Biden: Which Future Will You Deliver?”
The portrait is part of a campaign with the environmental group Greenpeace to pressure Biden to halt fossil fuel drilling on public lands and waters. The campaign also includes climate crisis education and promotes Green New Deal legislation.
Since 2008, Fairey has moved away from the hero worship of Hope to more pragmatic themes. He didn’t create Hope-style portraits for any future candidates he endorsed. It feels like Fairey trying not to repeat himself, but it also represents a change in political culture that Fairey has been at the forefront of. Stanning a politician is viewed more skeptically today than it was during the late ‘00s and early ‘10s. In the Obama era, Fairey made art that celebrated a politician. Now, in the Biden era, he’s using his art to hold a politician accountable.
On Twitter, Fairey said he created the portrait to urge Biden “to take the action the justice and science demand.”
This is Biden’s top design priority
A conceptual design for the Tubman $20 produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 2016 and obtained by the New York Times. Credit: The New York Times
When it comes to Biden’s design priorities, the redesigned $20 note with abolitionist Harriet Tubman is at the top of his list, while making a decision about a new Air Force One design is not.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that the Treasury Department was “exploring ways to speed up” the process to put out the new $20 note, replacing Andrew Jackson with Tubman.
Psaki said it was important for our money to “reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman’s image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that.”
As for the redesigned AF1 color scheme proposed by former President Donald Trump, Psaki said last Friday that while the administration was “certainly aware” of the proposal, “the president has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme of Air Force One or anything in the house or any article of anything.” Lmao.
The proposed new Air Force One design isn’t scheduled to go into use until 2024.
Why the Internet ❤️ the Bernie Wearing Mittens Sitting in a Chair meme
Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The breakout meme of President Joe Biden’s Inauguration was Bernie Wearing Mittens Sitting in a Chair, a photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) before the ceremony with his arms crossed, taken by photographer Brendan Smialowski.
The image is funny, and the meme is accessible and highly participatory. Because Sanders is socially distanced, his image is already isolated, making it easier to Photoshop. There were also plenty of ways people could participate without an Adobe subscription, like a site that placed Bernie in spots around the world with Google Maps, and filters on Instagram and Snapchat.
It felt like a meme anyone could play with, regardless of their opinion on Medicare For All. Well, almost anyone. Amazon tried, and then deleted their tweet, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) posted a screenshot and wrote that Amazon should let its employees unionize.
The Sanders campaign used the meme to raise money for charity. The campaign put out a $45 crewneck and a $27 tee. Both items are union printed and sold out, and 100% of proceeds went to Meals on Wheels Vermont and other charities. The “Chairman Sanders” sticker is still available for contributors of any amount, with the money also going to charity.
This meme feels very throwback. It’s liberal, celebratory, and popular, and its spread online was more spontaneous than forced, all the hallmarks of a progressive political meme circa 2012. Sanders has been a democratic socialist meme king for years, but his latest might be Bernie Meme Hall of Fame-level.
There are limited-edition Biden Inauguration trading cards
Credit: Topps
Topps, the New York City-based trading card and collectible company, released a 9-card Biden Inauguration bundle that includes cards of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Inauguration performers like Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, and, of course, Sanders chilling in his mittens. The $54.99 set is only available until Thursday.
Boston’s getting a new memorial to MLK and Coretta Scott King
Credit: King Boson
The Embrace, a 22-foot bronze monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife Coretta Scott King, is expected to be installed in Boston Common in October 2022.
The monument was designed by artist Hank Willis Thomasand the MASS Design Group, and it’s based on this photo of the Kings hugging after Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
King Boston, a non-profit that works with the City of Boston, selected Thomas’ design. In addition to the monument, the group will also create a Center for Economic Justice to research racial and economic justice issues.
It’s common to see monuments of King that depict his face, so this more abstract design stands out. The monument’s message of embrace will be a symbol of embracing loved ones post-vaccine, King Boston executive director Imari Paris Jeffries told Artnet News.
The attack on the Capitol has been turned into a graphic novel
The title page of Insider’s “American Carnage: The Taking of the Capitol” (left), and two panels from the comic (right). Credit: Insider
The 35-panel comic begins the morning of the attack, at Trump’s rally outside the White House, and it ends with former Vice President Mike Pence reconvening the joint session to certify Biden’s win and the aftermath. Panels are time stamped and based on video, transcript, and reporting from Insider, the New York Times, and CNN.
Insider has been experimenting with telling news stories in illustrated formats for a few years. In 2019, the site published an adapted version of the Mueller Report rewritten as a narrative by “Black Hawk Down” author Mark Bowden with illustrations by “Archer” art director Chad Hurd. And last year, Insider put out graphic novels about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Trump’s time in office.
I like the idea of comic book news and think it’s a creative way to tell stories. It can make some stories easier to understand and more accessible, which is one of the most important things journalism can do.
“American Carnage” was written by Anthony Del Col, with art by Josh Adams, colors by Dave Swartz, lettering by Taylor Espositio, and edited by Walter Hickey.
In case you were wondering how conservative artist Jon McNaughton has handled Trump leaving the White House, he’s doing just fine.
Between the election and Biden’s Inauguration, McNaughton released some sketches showing support for Trump’s false and debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, but he mostly posted old images from Trump’s term in office.
The only work he released at all connected to the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a sketch of Trump with a quote from his rally earlier in the day emphasizing peace:
McNaughton’s latest sketches are forward looking. One included a quote from Trump’s farewell video — “The movement we started is only just beginning,” and in another, McNaughton expressed his support for a “Patriot Party” after the Wall Street Journal reported Trump had talked about starting a new political party. Both sketches were sold as limited editions.
