Introducing Miss America 1947

Steve Wheeler made this image, Introducing Miss America, in 1949, and it’s a screenprint. The colors are laid down flat, like traffic signs, in pinks, reds, and blacks, and it’s all contained in a big oval. The surface is smooth, the colors are bold, and the composition is a wild jumble of shapes. The texture almost seems to vibrate, like a low hum in your body. These shapes remind me of a bird of prey, geometric and aggressive. But I don’t know if it is, or if I want it to be. I’m drawn to the way this creature comes in and out of focus. Does that make sense? I hope so. I feel like Wheeler is channeling Picasso, maybe having a conversation with his cubist heads, but he’s doing it with pop colors and a flattened-out space. It makes me think about how ideas keep moving and changing, just like marks on a canvas. Artists, like me, we’re all just trying to catch those ideas as they fly by.