Banknote Portraits

Dale Wittig 
acrylic, pencil & gesso on card
September 2017 
San Francisco CA

In conjunction with my new pamphlet, Bank Fraud, I made a small series of paintings to show at this year’s New York Art Book Fair at PS1, a couple of days from now.  The banknotes chosen were based on familiarity, actual possession, and by relation to the theme of the booklet, which reproduces internet fishing letters that attempt to deceive the reader into revealing their banking information to the writer.  Overlaying the letters are drawings of stacks and piles of cash and various banknotes in close-up.  One is promised millions of dollars, usually to help some orphaned relative of the writer, though sometimes directly appealing to the reader’s overt criminal tendencies.  I’ve always enjoyed looking at the portraits that appear on banknotes and have long wanted an excuse for painting variations on those found there.

1.Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey on Five Ghana Cedis note  2.George Washington on 1935 One Dollar Silver Certificate  3.Elizabeth Windsor on Fifty Pound note  4.Andrew Jackson on 2003 Twenty Dollar bill  5.Mao Zedong on One Hundred Yuan note  6.Thomas Jefferson on 2009 Two Dollar bill  7.Emiliano Zapata on Diez Pesos note  8.Benjamin Franklin on 2009 One Hundred Dollar bill  9.Nezahualcoyotl on Cien Pesos note  10. Benito Pablo Juárez  on 1913 Cincuenta Pesos note