Hey you

The work of French-born, Brooklyn-based 34-year-old Jules de Balincourt often takes on subjects that lie close to America's heart, such as democracy. The work questions the state of American ideals and thus helps to spotlight the shape of our times. The painting on these pages not only features a quote from John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song"--"By uniting we stand/By dividing we fall," which became a rallying cry for the American Revolution--but changes it slightly, so we can see what we could lose. It has been almost 250 years since Dickinson wrote those lines, but they still have their zing, their inspiring ring, and they feel more urgent today than ever. Perhaps it's a moment to quote from another closely related lyric, this one from "Hey You," the 1979 classic by Pink Floyd: "Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all/Together we stand, divided we fall."

This spread: Jules de Balincourt's Untied We Stood, 2005, oil, enamel, and spray paint on panel, 20 x 28 in. Courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning