Work Well Together is a unique Spray Paint and Stencil artwork by Mr. Brainwash from the year 2024. Like many of his works, the motif Work Well Together goes back to the graphic artist Norman Rockwell. The original is called “Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon” but is often referred to as Little Spooners or Puppy Love. The simple pleasures of life and the flaring of first love are the focus of Norman Rockwell’s 1926 “Saturday Evening Post” cover, which shows a young couple enchanted by the moon and each other’s company. Their rickety wooden bench bends under their weight, but that doesn’t stop their reverie as they take time to enjoy the moment. As they do so, the little boy hugs the girl, who gazes dreamily into the moon with her braids and spotted summer dress. Below you is a young dog holding a paintbrush in its mouth and sitting in front of a bucket of paint. This is, of course, an alienation of Mr. Brainwash himself. In the original by Norman Rockwell, the dog has nothing in his mouth and is sitting in front of an empty tin can. Very nice in detail are the Flowers that the little girl holds in her right hand.

The original oil on canvas painting measures 24 x 20 inches, or 61 x 51 cm, and has been part of the Norman Rockwell Museum of Massachusetts collection since February 13, 2015. It was generously donated by Bill Millis, who had owned it since 1975.

The faces of the young lovers are not visible, so we can only estimate their approximate ages. It is unlikely that they are teenagers yet. They are younger. This is one of the romantic images he often evoked with his paintings. Two young people in love are sitting on a bench watching the sunset. What could be more idyllic?

The details make clear the affection that binds the two. Most strikingly, the young man has his arm around the object of his affection. Rockwell has accurately captured how lovers sit together as they enjoy each other’s company. We don’t know if the models he used for the illustration were actually lovers or not. If not, they were excellent actors and were well coached by the artist.

Little Spooners was published in the Roaring Twenties. Economic times were generally good. Yet this boy made a bench out of two logs, probably firewood borrowed from his parents, and a modest piece of lumber. The piece of wood is so thin that it bends in the middle under the weight of the two young people. This, of course, makes it easier to snuggle up to each other.

The poor little dog looks sad because he was abandoned by the boy for a two-legged friend. He paws near the boy’s discarded fishing pole as if to tell his master, “Let’s go.” But the boy is not thinking about fishing or his puppy. There is no puppy love here towards the puppy.

Puppy Love was also featured on Google’s home page in the form of a Google Doodle. Google honored Norman Rockwell on his 116th birthday, which would have been February 3, 2010.

In 1926, he had already worked for “The Saturday Evening Post” for ten years. A self-proclaimed specialist in painting child-centered scenes, he elevated the status of his youthful subjects by portraying them as complex individuals with dignity despite their economic status. In Work Well Together, Rockwell recalls the pleasure of spending vacations on rural farms on Long Island and in upstate New York, a respite from the hustle and bustle of life in New York City, where he was born and spent his youth. His composition invites us to look over the shoulders of children who are unaware of our presence. Their simple fishing equipment – a branch with line and a blue and orange spool (repeating the artist’s color palette) – has been placed behind them. Entranced as they are, they are unaware that their bait is escaping from the can, or that the dog, now a third wheel, is gazing longingly from the canvas.

International Shooting Star / Mr. Brainwash

Hardly any other street art artist has experienced such a rapid rise as the Frenchman Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash, born in Garges-lès-Gonesse in 1966. His path to becoming the most successful artist of recent years is closely linked to the name Banksy and his Oscar-winning film Exit Through the Gift Shop: In this documentary Banksy encourages the then still unknown Guetta to become active as an artist himself under the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash. The rumor persists that the Frenchman Brainwash is a purely fictional person invented by Banksy and that his works are actually created by Banksy.

Like many Urban Art and Street Art artists, Mr. Brainwash uses well-known motifs like celebrities or comic icons and combines them with his very own signature messages of positivity: “Love is the Answer”, “Life is Beautiful” or “Follow Your Dreams”. The main motif is sprayed as a stencil with acrylic paint, whereas the background is composed differently as a collage or with mixed media. Old snippets from comic books, vintage brochures and other stencils let the viewer discover new details again and again.

Mr. Brainwash combines in Work Well Together in the tradition of pop art, well-known motifs, celebrities, cartoon characters and icons with the typical for him, positive and uplifting messages such as “Love is the Answer”, “Life is Beautiful” or “Follow Your Dreams”. The main motif of the two small children is sprayed as a stencil with a stencil and acrylic paint whereas the background is worked out as a collage or with mixed media each differently. Old snippets from comic books, vintage brochures and other stencils allow the viewer to see new details again and again. The French-born street artist now also regularly makes huge murals from LA to New York that characterize the cityscape.