El Snacktator 20th Century Muse: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

El's been rearranging Snackhambra again and ran across one of his favorite pieces of furniture... his custom BarcELona chair. Yes, BarcELona... at least that's what Mies named it.

You see, El didn't only have an impact on painters. No, no one was or is immune to that squiggle... El's iconic embellishment. Not even Mies... student of "form follows function"... less is more... you get the idea.

Maybe it was a case of opposites attract, but no matter how different their approach, El being all about the more, Mies being all about the bare bones, stripped down glory, El and Mies were instantly the best of friends... And so Mies dared to adorn his beloved Barcelona chair with an unneeded, totally frivolous embellishment (although he tried to claim it was a headrest and therefore had function) and renamed it the "BarcELona Chair".

El always loved Mies for that. El also wanted solid gold legs, but Mies drew the line. It was chrome or nothing. Pffft. Oh well.

El Snacktator 20th Century Muse: Pablo Picasso

El has been sorting through the vaults again and ran past this... one of the many portraits Pablo Picasso did of El. El loved Pablo. Pablo loved El. They just seemed to understand each other... each smaller yet more powerful than the average soul. Each playful, yet serious... Each king of the world in their own way. El misses Pablo...

While El has always loved being the center of Pablo's attention, El was often tempted to point out to him that most portraits really looked like Pablo. Oh hell, Pablo couldn't even paint a bull without making it look like Pablo! The man was a genius, but he had blinders on... blinders with a mirror attached to the front!

Oh well, Pablo could have given El 3 breasts...

And why did Picasso seek out El for portrait after portrait? Again... it was that damn squiggle. No one can resist the squiggle... especially Pablo... the man who said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

No child can resist the squiggle.

El Snacktator 20th Century Muse: Alexander Calder

Another one of El's favorite portraits would have to be the whimsical wire sculpture done by good friend, Sandy Calder. There was no formal sitting, no planning, it just happened after a wonderful dinner. El was talking about El, something El is good at doing, while Sandy worked the wire.

In Calder's piece, we see El stripped down once more, but whereas Hopper's stripped down version of El is filled with angst and loneliness... Calder's take on El was much more playful, but then Sandy was a happier man than Ed.

However... lonely artist, happy artist, it just doesn't matter... no one can resist the lure of the squiggle.

A secret that El doesn't share with everyone... El has many squiggles. Yes, they're removable. El even has squiggles with differing numbers of loops. Next time you hear the rumor that El must have 7, you tell them you know better! El sometimes has 6... and even up to 8. It's a mood thing.

El Snacktator 20th Century Muse: Jackson Pollock

Even infamous cranky boy, Jackson Pollock, was not immune to El's light-hearted squiggle. Pollock, most famous for his abstract expressionism, especially his "drip" paintings, could not help but give a nod to that come hither loop-de-loop of icing.

Pollock attempted to paint El 5 times, reducing El to 100% abstraction, with no true realistic representation, but no matter how hard he tried, that squiggle kept emerging. He finally let it be.

El is lucky Pollock finished any piece as during the process, El took to calling him Snackson Pollock. Needless to say, Pollock was not amused.

El was...

El Snacktator, 20th Century Muse: Wayne Thiebaud

El has reached into his private collection one more time to share with the world just how much the world's artists loved El. They couldn't get enough... wanting to capture El's je ne sais quoi. El couldn't blame them.

Today's artist? Probably one of El's favorites.

Wayne Thiebaud...

Let's just say... the man has a way with the baked goods... that and the fact that his work often falls into the category of Pop Art due to his interest in objects of mass culture. Well... El is a baked good... and El is definitely an icon of mass culture.

El Snacktator, 20th Century Muse: Edward Hopper

Many, many years ago, El was hanging out with good friend Edward Hopper when Ed mentioned that he wanted to do El's portrait. El was thrilled and already had visions of dramatic shadows... El posing in is best dictatorial garb! Or perhaps, El would be in a scene like Nighthawks. El always liked Nighthawks... but no, Ed, bastard that he was, had other ideas.

It seems Ed wanted El stripped down. He wanted El Unplugged and suggested a time of day when El was not quite one with the world, but lost in his thoughts. Thoughts of grandeur no doubt! El could see it, he would be propped up on his resplendent Deco bed... in his comfy silk jammies. Sure El would do it.

But no, Ed felt this was not stripped down enough. He wanted El to be isolated... stripped of any comfort he knew. El swears that Hopper went through this damn isolation phase for approximately 3/4's of his career! People got it Ed! We're together, but we're alone!

Still, Ed never really painted anyone, but that wife of his so El consented. El does have an ego after all and being painted by Hopper was still a coup... and dictators can rarely resist a coup. Off they went. El suspected he'd be at Ed's studio, but alas, Ed took him to some fleabag of a motel in Brooklyn! There were no silk jammies to be had, merely a nasty, used frock that somewhat resembled a large man's undershirt. El thought he might be able to wear his hat, but no... there was to be no hat, no medals, only El with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the unbearable loneliness that being a snack cake dictator can bring. El had it all... and yet he was utterly alone... it's lonely being at the top...

El was happy with the outcome and imagined it one day hanging in a museum alongside other famous tributes to El, but no... Hopper decided he wasn't happy with El... he wanted someone else, someone more familiar... and when El saw it, hanging in front of an adoring crowd... who did he see, but that damn wife.

Oh well, she deserved it. Ed really was a bastard...

El Snacktator, 20th Century Muse: Edgar Leeteg

Taken from Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Few people realize the relevance of El Snacktator in 20th Century Art. El tantalized and teased artists, bringing out their best and their worst.

Today's offering from El's vault is a fabulous piece done by onetime good friend, Ed Leeteg. For those not familiar with Leeteg, he is better known as the Father of Modern Velvet Painting. While Leetag's preferred subject matter was nubile Tahitian woman... he was also known to do quick velvet renderings of dear friends.

The accompanying painting of El was done during El's last visit to Leeteg's, Villa Velour estate. A few drinks and some good conversation led to some studio time. Leeteg died soon after in a motorcycle crash. El is forever grateful he made the visit and that he took the time to sit for his good friend.

Few in the art world are aware of this painting's existence. Those few realize that it is irreplaceable and priceless... the melding of two unique and kitschy beings.

As Leeteg was quoted as saying, "My paintings belong in a gin mill, not a museum. If this modern crap is art, then just call my paintings beautiful. Don't call them art."

Dear Mr. Leeteg. We beg to differ... and so does El.

El Snacktator: 20th Century Muse

Taken from Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Few people realize the relevance of El Snacktator in 20th Century Art. El tantalized and teased artists, bringing out their best and their worst.

The above Miro is an example of an artist not being able to get El out of his mind. While Miro despised bourgeois art and its subjects, he found himself tantalized by El's childlike (childish?) ways. He was also haunted by the playfulness and come hither mood of El's white frosting squiggle....

Miro- much like a person fighting the urge to eat a mass produced cupcake and losing, found himself tempted to capture El on canvas, and then, once giving into temptation, found himself filled with disgust.

The love/hate relationship between El Snacktator and some of the 20th Century's most important artists would be a common theme.