Issue #39, December 22, 2006

The Many Faces of Claus

by Christian McLean

Say what you want about the Coca-Colonization of the world, its destruction of traditional cultural ways and its hand in increasing diabetes in indigenous cultures, it did one thing right – it made Santa one jolly old sonofabitch. That fat man has been used to sell everything under the sun and as iconic as his round belly and white beard may be, there is more to the physical presence of Santa than meets the twinkle in his eye.

In the beginning, there was St. Nicholas, a real, live human being who lived in Turkey about 1700 years ago. He was a priest and then a bishop and eventually a Catholic saint. During the Protestant Reformation, a great break was made from anything Catholic, so St. Nicholas took many different forms and names throughout Europe. In communist Russia, he actually wore a blue suit instead of red, which is rather funny when you think about it. The American Santa Claus we all know and love evolved from several artists’ depictions, but Haddon Sundblom was the artist behind the Coca Cola illustrations (which were printed each year from 1931-1964) on the back cover of National Geographic or the Post that made him the man we all know and love. This Christmas marks the 75th anniversary of the iconic gut, red suit, black belt and boots. But the art of Santa doesn’t stop with a soda company.

Almost as shameless a prostitute of American culture as Coca-Cola, Andy Warhol re-invented Santa (the same way he re-invented everything else – through silk-screens). In 1981, the Pop-art sensation dug deep into Americana and created a ten-image series titled “Myths.” The series of silk-screens captured American icons such as Mickey Mouse and Superman, as well as internationally mythologized figures like Santa. In order to avoid copyright problems, Warhol dressed models in costume and positioned them in order to find exactly what he was looking for in capturing the essence of American mythology. Very hip, Andy, very hip, indeed.

Twenty years before Warhol tried his hand with Santa, his contemporary, Jim Dine, did a watercolor and pencil piece titled “Santa Claus Studies.” The images border on cartoonish, but depict the old man the way we know him, with a big white beard, red suit and red hat. He is wearing a pair of knee-high white boots, though. Then again, the work was done in 1962, so what would you expect?

Forty years before Dine and ten years before Coca-Cola re-did Santa, German artist Kurt Schwitters created his abstract collage “Der Weihnachtsmann” (“Santa Claus”). The piece, fabricated with colored and printed papers, does little to drum up any signs of warmth and jolliness. Instead, the piece is layered to create a bleak work of muted colors. Maybe he got coal for Christmas every year?

While the art world has interpreted Santa many times and in many ways, Norman Rockwell must get his due credit. As the famed illustrator of the Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell’s images of Santa share the same iconic stature as those of Sundblom. Even if he did not “create” that concept of Santa Claus, Rockwell did more to humanize and personalize him than others had before.

Rockwell’s original oil paints of Jolly Old St. Nick, pulled in hundreds of thousand of dollars at auction in the 1990s and would surely sell for millions in today’s art world (as did his “Breaking Home Ties” – a non-Christmas painting – which just sold for a staggering $15.4 million a few weeks ago.)

So while you’re laughing at the fat man on TV or buying into corporate America by drinking a bottle of soda with his face on it, remember that Santa has taken may shapes and had many visages over the centuries – and may very well change again, who knows? A man can’t live for 1700 years and not reinvent himself every once and a while.

If you’re interested in seeing 15 of Sundblom’s original Coca-Cola Santa paintings, you can head into NYC, where they have been on display at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz in Lincoln Center since December 1st. The exhibition is free to the public.

WELLS FARGO GALLERY – A show of traditional photographs by Anthony Lombardo will be on show through the month of December. The office is open Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Located at 62 Hampton Road, Southampton. Call 631-680-7551.