Metapictures

Metapictures are pictures that reflect on the messages of other pictures. For example, the 1971 anti-war poster I Want Out is based on, and disagrees with, the 1917 recruitment poster I Want You by James Montgomery Flagg. Metapictures deserve special attention in illustration because they reveal public intellectual engagement regarding pictures themselves. This article examines case studies, including the iRaq parody of Apple’s branding and Steff Geissbühler’s Peace to demonstrate resistance to the commodification of the image space, where the illustrator functions as an author responding to other creators through visual means. In “The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments,” J. Anthony Blair identified three significant shortcomings of pictures: a lack of disclosure of opposing views, a tendency not to provide evidence, and a susceptibility to ambiguity or vagueness. However, these critiques typically target pictures that must stand alone. This article’s central question asks: Can illustrations referencing other illustrations address these perceived shortcomings? By premising a visual argument on a pre-existing picture, metapictures are better equipped to disclose multiple sides of an argument and provide evidence for a proposition. Illustrators of metapictures tacitly acknowledge the associations of earlier works, contributing to public debate and opening their own work to critique or parody. In this way, illustrators raise their voice in a conversation of visual materials. The visual mode of caricature is further discussed as a sophisticated form of metapicture that relies on shared mental prototypes.