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# The National Academy of Design Presents Trumpworld, an Installation by Don Perlis
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-national-academy-of-design-presents-trumpworld-an-installation-by-don-perlis/
- Published: 2018-05-17T15:12:32.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:10:21.000Z
- Description: An exhibition of paintings that mirror the current climate of our culture.
- Author: National Academy of Design
- Tags: Announcement, Exhibition Announcement, National Academy of Design, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/05/12-22-17_0762_no_mustache.jpg)

.

Times Square is a metaphor for an America in a decadent and conflict filled phase dominated by overblown symbols of corporate power, Coca Cola, Budweiser, and others. [Donald Trump](http://bit.ly/2rJMp3S?ref=hyperallergic.com), the overseer of this land, floats above the crowd in a huge, fragile, transparent balloon, which according to critic Donald Kuspit “will burst at any moment.” Appearing in profile like a visage on coins minted by some forgotten Roman emperor, Trump simultaneously recalls the classical deus ex machina and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade; that is to say both tragedy and comedy. A jingoist Uncle Sam tethers his and a second balloon — blank, as Trump is a one man band — by a slender, tenuous, and easily ruptured restraint.

Times Square here is a theatre of the absurd, lit with garish colors, bright lights, flickering ever-changing images, and populated with an assortment of updated Hieronymus Bosch characters transformed by popular culture. It is a 24-hour street carnival and a never-ending parade.

[Don Perlis](http://bit.ly/2rJMp3S?ref=hyperallergic.com)’ first public exhibition was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1971 (*22 Realists*). Subsequent shows of his work, though all comprised of narrative paintings, have varied widely in theme — from gritty urban dramas (many of them taking place in the New York subways) to highly erotic works sparked by contemporary Latin-American fiction writers such as Gabriel Garcia Márquez. More recently, he has focused on intensely dramatic themes, ranging from operatic productions to the honky-tonk spectacle of New York’s Times Square.

[Trumpworld](http://bit.ly/2rJMp3S?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at The National Academy of Design (*entrance at 5 East 89th Street*, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through June 14.*