Still Life With Duck

THE SUBLIMATED self-loathing of someone who, having reached the pinnacle of popular success, still craves gilt-frame cred is a sorry spectacle indeed. Ever seen the "fine art" of Dr. Seuss? You don't want to.

Kaj Stenvall works exactly the opposite trick. "I have been always painting realistic things," he said. Which may seem odd coming from a fellow whose stock-in-trade since 1989 has been cartoon birds, ducks mainly.

But perusing "Birdhouse," his show at the Finnish Embassy, reveals that he wasn't fooling when he said, "I try to make serious art." Stenvall inserts pop personages into finer settings as an oblique means of refreshing timeworn conventions of portraiture and genre painting.

A skewed traditionalist, he builds up his pictures in thin glazes, "like Whistler," he said. Asked whether he ever, even as a youth, entertained aspirations of becoming a cartoonist, the answer was exactly what the paintings lead you to expect.

"No, no, no."

The attitudinal precision and emotional subtlety of Stenvall's best work is remarkable. Before you even notice that the subject of "It Was on the House" strides purposefully from the darkened doorway of the O' Bird tavern, with a glance you know this: He's been caught again, and behind the briefest flicker of shame there is pride, the whatcha-gonna-do-about-it insouciance of the already drunk. There are no pink elephants whirling around his head, no graphic corkscrews or bubble-bursts to signify that this duck is crocked. Everything is in his expression, his posture.

When Stenvall does go for humor, it's often the sliest black comedy. "Mandatum for the Fatherland" finds a white-feathered duck snoozing on green grass beneath a quilted comforter in the form of the Finnish flag, an eiderdown stuffed with ... yep. (But if you want to see the one titled "Slaves of Sex," you'll have to settle for a visit to kajstenvall.com. The painting was pulled from the wall hours before the opening.)

Cartoon characters may have grown a lot in recent years, but so-called family values still hold sway.

Written by Express contributor Glenn Dixon.
Image courtesy Embassy of Finland.

» Embassy of Finland, 3301 Massachusetts Ave. NW; through May 13, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (closed Apr. 6-9 & 24); free; 202-298-5822.