Miss Rheingold 1961 , 2013
Painting - oil on canvas
40 x 33 in
102 x 84 cm
From 1941 to 1964 Rheingold beer ran a very popular media campaign whereby Americans annually elected a "Miss Rheingold" based on advertisements featuring six contestants. At the height of the Miss Rheingold campaign in the late 1950s, yearly votes totaled over 23 million. Miss Rheingold was always an All-American girl next door type. Daniel Kotberbay is using his "Miss Rheingold" motif as a nostalgic reference to a certain wholesome Americana of the past. He is then merging that theme with cultural references to other countries (here Japan), thereby providing an examination of (and commentary on) American and foreign cultures both past and present. Signed by artist and dated on verso.
