Off With Her Head
This work, titled “The Ace and Queen of Spades 1st Stage”, is a lithograph by Pat Snyder, dated 1967. When I came across it at a church rummage sale, I thought it was related to Alice in Wonderland, and purchased it without much thought, tucking it away in my art closet. The work is masterfully done, but there is a slightly disturbing vibe to the piece, and I chalked that up to the Queen of Hearts from Alice In Wonderland. As I had not done any significant viewing of the piece, I pulled it out the other day to study it more closely. Definitely not Alice, though the small guillotine in the image screams “off with her head”.
The work draws your eye – literally – to the central junction of the cards. Hidden there, amid the wood grain of the floor boards, is a slithering tail of a snake, peeking out between the cards. Notice the “central” point is actually off center to the left– a masterful stroke by the artist to make us nervous. The term being “off center” describe feelings of instability, or a sense of nervousness of things being “off”. To make sure we don’t miss the point, the snake then reemerges inside the frame of the Ace of Spades card – winding its way up a tree, head pointing us in the right direction. This, too, is a quirk of human nature: we tend to go right when faced with choices. We enter a shop and turn to the right. We (mostly) read to the right. We scan newspapers to the right (okay, sure, I’m dating myself). But the reality remains that we tend to head right – though maybe not in moral issues. And, in case anyone wonders, the Ace of Spades is the highest card in a deck and is known for its association with power, authority and dominance.
As we look over the Ace of Spades, drawn in by our friendly serpent, the storm clouds overhead swirl with a Dante Infero-esque cloud of bodies. A sense of souls piling up in hell. Not to belabor the point, but those are all women, and they sprout from the head of the small, naked – female – figure fleeing in the foreground. And yet our buddy Adam is fully clothed and not easily identifiable other than guilt by association. Mr. Snyder then whacks us over the head with Adam covering his eyes and wearing a religious symbol. Well then. Things are getting curiouser and curiouser.
Mr. Snyder actually created a self-portrait in the work, which is how I determining Pat is male. I would have guessed the artist was a woman due to the era – late 1960s with all its women’s rights demands – and the emerging theme. However, the artist stands in the foreground, depicting history from his perspective as he looks over his left shoulder (not right!) at his subject. He wears glasses, and holds a pallet in the shape of a spade. Traditionally, the Jack of Spades was considered a messenger, a person in a capacity of trust. Sometimes “this card is used to designate a critic, or a critical position; a moment of impending danger.” (https://cardarium.com/jack-of-spades). The “reverse” of the card – meaning the upside down side – signifies scrutiny or inquirer.
I bring this up because the undercurrents of the work begin to congeal around issues of women and the degree to which they are blamed and judged. We have already introduced Eve, and there are 2 queen of spade cards. One holds up the left side of the house of cards. The other smaller one is situated on an easel. The queen in the smaller card holds a playing card and a baby, and the easel upon which she rests is actually a guillotine. The baby is very faint, still seeming to be in-utero, and the playing card is the Ace of Spades, signed by the artist. I get the sense Mr. Snyder is sympathetic to the plight of women, with them carrying all the blame and damage, specifically around the issue of abortion, while the man literally runs away with his eyes covered. Though that may simply be my feeling reading into the work.
And then we have our king. The floor “king” has no “house” though he wears a Star of David, has stigmata in his hands and feet, and appears to act as the “rug” in our house of cards, upon which we all tread. Mr. Snyder is not subtle, I give him that.