Eighty years ago, a farm girl fretfully drifted to sleep in the eye of a tornado. Since then, The Wizard of Oz has journeyed across history, meeting new interpretations at every turn. Today, the modern classic awakes on Philippe Le Miere's canvas. For him, Dorothy’s story is about ripping back the curtain, questioning dogma and most strikingly, daring to be wise.

In this work, Le Miere pays homage to an icon of metallic melancholy, the Tin Man. In it, the artist draws out his subject’s pathos like a wailing crescendo. ‘Classic wizard of oz sad tin man’ is a reminder that sometimes the most effectual imagery is not joyous, but rather an embrace of emotion in all its shades of blue. You’d be heartless not to take this Tin Man home.

‘Classic wizard of oz sad tin man’ is a pochoir (posh-waar) print. Emerging in late nineteenth-century Paris, pochoir printmaking sees an artist layer and hand-colour each component of their image. Unmechanised, this process gives each edition its own ‘aura’ while also requiring serious time and skill. Indeed, by the 1930s pochoirs had all but died under the rise of more efficient, mechanised printing techniques.

It was master printmaker Jeffrey Makin who first linked Le Miere’s experimental process with the forgotten early twentieth-century practice. For Le Miere, working by hand represents a critical counterpoint to his subject matter. Where mainstream cinema is technologically immaculate, Le Miere’s work is fluid, textural and deliciously idiosyncratic. Layers of paint disturb a perfect surface, registering like man-made pixels. Once employed by Matisse and Picasso and revived by Le Miere, the pochoir unites art and the artisanal to give each work the feel of an original painting.

Read our interview with artist here. 

View 'Over the Rainbow' swirl as a projection, here. 

Philippe LE MIERE (1975 - )
'classic wizard of oz sad tin man' 2020
acrylic on vinyl
Edition of 50
Image Size: 34 x 26 cm
Dimensions: 42 x 30 cm
Signed: Signed, titled and editioned in margin
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition: Excellent.

(C) The Artist or Assignee

This work of art comes unframed to allow for safe and economical shipping. Please contact us if you would like to arrange for this to be professionally framed.