Box Vox

packaging as content

«
»

December 15, 2011

Dan Witz: Bar Shrine Paintings

1-bar“Shrine” (I’ve also seen this painting titled as “Bar”) 2006, 68×40 oil and mixed media on canvas

Dan Witz (mentioned in yesterday’s post) was one of several roommates that I shared a low-ceilinged, South Street Seaport loft with in the late 1970s.

I like his paintings of liquor bottles. The one above from 2006 seems to have two different titles: “Bar” and “Shrine.” His later liquor bottle paintings from 2010 seem to have combined these two titles into “Bar Shrine.”

I can find nothing online to suggest that it’s intentional, but the painting above looks like a skull to me. A subliminal vanitas symbol for a splendid array of liquor choices? (Death-as-bartender: “Name your poison!”)

2-bar_tryptch_2009Bar Shrine #2 Triptych, 2010, 56" x 84" oil and digital media on canvas

(One more “Bar Shrine” painting, after the fold…)


3-bar_shrine_3__m_shanghaiBar Shrine #3, 2010, M Shanghai 40" x 54" oil and digital media on canvas

(See also Vanitas & Fast Moving Consumer Goods and The Cognitive Illusion Skull)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

 

One Response to “Dan Witz: Bar Shrine Paintings”

  1. Ellen says:
    December 17, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    I, too, see a skull.