Title: “LA GUARDIA”
Size: 19.125” W x 14.625” H (unframed) Available
Story:
Throughout history the artichoke grew wild and flourished in Italy. And in the early 1900’s with a rush of Italians to America, it was found at first there were no artichokes, and then they could only be grown in California. Such an Italian staple came under the control of the mafia, and in New York they controlled completely their distribution and sale. Until 1935, when Mayor La Guardia hoping to break the mafia’s control of the new wholesale produce market banned artichokes. For one year, New York Italians wept and there was a flourishing black market for these gems. A year later under extraordinary pressure, the ban was lifted. But even today there are whispers that the artichokes are still controlled by the Black Hand.
Materials:
Acrylic paints on heavy French watercolor paper bathed in archival UV-resistant polymers, bordered with insets of mid-1800’s Japanese calligraphy from a grocer’s ledger of accounts, adorned at each corner with a late 1800’s Chinese “Tai Ching Ti Kuo” cash coin, with outside border panels of painted and gilded mulberry paper, all mounted onto archival museum board.
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