Caught red handed - with Keith Haring, 2022
Mr Brainwash

Caught Red Handed is a unique Spray Paint and Stencil artwork by Mr. Brainwash. Like much of his work, Mr. Brainwash’s Caught Red-Handed motif is based on vintage illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post, often designed by Norman Rockwell or Steven Dohanos.. An older gentleman in a suit catches a little girl doing something. The child innocently holds her hands up. In Normal Rockwell’s original, of course, we don’t know what the little girl has done. In Mr. Brainwash, the motif has been alienated in its own unique way, in that the girl has hands smeared with paint and has a paint bucket standing next to her. So the girl has obviously painted some wall in a street art manner.

Caught Red Handed is a unique Spray Paint and Stencil artwork by Mr. Brainwash which is available at FRANK FLUEGEL GALERIE. Like much of his work, Mr. Brainwash’s Caught Red-Handed motif is based on vintage illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post, often designed by Norman Rockwell or Steven Dohanos.. An older gentleman in a suit catches a little girl doing something. The child innocently holds her hands up. In Normal Rockwell’s original, of course, we don’t know what the little girl has done. In Mr. Brainwash, the motif has been alienated in its own unique way, in that the girl has hands smeared with paint and has a paint bucket standing next to her. So the girl has obviously painted some wall in a street art manner.

Mr. Brainwash is known for finding his inspiration in classics of US culture. The French-born artist represents the American way of life like no other. He managed in a short time to work his way up to a successful artist with his unique pieces and originals. The work series “Caught Red Handed” is based on illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post by Stevan Dohanos. Specifically, the work “The Hardware Store” which appeared as a cover illustration on November 10, 1951 on the Saturday Evening Post. The original painting that accompanied it was later sold for $28,125.

Stevan Dohanos born May 18, 1907 in Lorain, Ohio, grew up a great admirer of Norman Rockwell and went so far as to copy his Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations in colored pencil to sell to friends, relatives and associates. Little did Stevan know that he would develop a close personal friendship with Rockwell, as his own art graced the cover of the Post 123 times during his lifetime.

While inspired by Rockwell’s talent, Dohanos became an “American realist” who depicted everyday life as it was. He was most influenced by the work of Edward Hopper and chose not to idealize American life as Rockwell did.

During and after art school, the young Dohanos worked at an advertising agency in Cleveland, then traveled the country painting murals before moving to New York City to work as a commercial artist. Eventually, he moved to the artist colony of Westport, Connecticut, where he drew inspiration from the daily lives of his neighbors.

While working in the city, Dohanos took advertising work from clients such as Four Roses Whiskey, Maxwell House Coffee, Pan Am Airlines, Cannon Towels, Olin Industries, and John Hancock Insurance. His work was featured in Esquire, Medical Times, McCall’s and Colliers before he successfully advertised for the first time in The Saturday Evening Post.

His first cover of the Post, the March 7, 1942 issue, was a wartime, well-captured image of air raid lights on an artillery battery. In the 1940s and 1950s, the artist’s workload for The Post increased, and he was contracted for about a dozen covers a year.

As magazine covers turned to photography and away from illustration, Dohanos quickly changed careers. He did film art for classics like White Christmas and was chairman of the National Stamp Advisory Committee, where he oversaw art design for more than 300 stamps. He held this position in the administrations of 7 presidents and 9 postmaster generals.

Stevan Dohanos found beauty in everyday life by focusing on “the place and trappings of the American dream, not those who populated it.” Dohanos’ artwork, which became known as the famous Saturday Evening Post illustrations, now adorns the walls, halls, and galleries of the Cleveland Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Dartmouth College, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and various federal post offices throughout the United States. He died on July 4, 1994, at the age of 87.