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Rob Pruitt Responds to Our Wacky Word Prompts for His 50th Birthday
We said "Parody," he said "schmarody."
We said "Parody," he said "schmarody."
Kevin McGarry ShareShare This Article
On Sunday, beloved Pop artist and provocateur Rob Pruitt celebrates his 50th birthday at the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut. The party doubles as the opening of his retrospective exhibition, which features some of his most beloved and/or most recognizable work—including an iteration of Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market where the Brant family’s personal effects will be on offer in addition to Pruitt’s own.
Also in timely fashion, Pruitt’s show at MOCAD, “The Obama Painting and The Lincoln Monument,” will be unveiled May 15, featuring his massive Obama installation.
Rather than candles, on this special occasion, we gave Pruitt 50 prompts as a kind of word association game, and in response, he gave us 50 words that were gut reactions. Below, we’ve assembled these words with an eye towards creating a verbal mid-life retrospective of sorts (paralleling his upcoming real world shows). Each of the words was culled from the artist’s well-maintained Wikipedia page in the order of its appearance on the page, which begins as follows:
“Robert “Rob” Pruitt (born May 17, 1964) is an American post-pop artist who explores American youth and consumer culture. Working in painting, installation, and sculpture, he does not have a single style or medium.”
Here are Rob Pruitt’s responses (right) to our prompts (left):
1. American – young
2. Pop – culture
3. Youth – quake
4. Consumer – remorse
5. Culture – yogurt
6. Style – maven
7. Trash – and vaudeville
8. Minimalism – box
9. Aspen – Uggs
10. Maryland – crabs
11. Energy – chakra
12. Artist – con
13. Evian – water
14. Cocaine – glitter
15. Publicity – hound
16. Greed – trump
17. Glamour – glitter
18. Humor – Jewish
19. Genre – romance
20. Panda – bear
21. Trademark – Coke
22. Corporate – lobby
23. Perrier – fizzy
24. Kitsch – cheetah
25. Irony – comic
26. Virtue – compassion
27. Glitter – shine
28. Diamond – in ruff
29. Gala – dread
30. Sincerity – Jonathan
31. Parody – schmarody
32. Amish – cheese
33. Responsibility – duty
34. Society – sobriety
35. Monster – Henson
36. Cinnabon – love
37. Pattern – decoration
38. Design – Eames era
39. Emoji – queen
40. Personality – plus
41. Pure – gold
42. Perfect – simple
43. Television – reality
44. Andy – Warhol
45. iPhone – brain
46. Celebrity – Beyoncé
47. Weed – brownies
48. Million – dollars
49. Price – discount
50. Value – bargain