Confetti #34

Artist Kurt Vonnegut (American, 1922 - 2007)

Artist Joe Petro III (American, born 1956)

Date2005

ClassificationsPop Culture

DimensionsFramed: 23 x 19 x 1 1/4 in. (58.4 x 48.3 x 3.2 cm)
Print: 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm)

DescriptionSilkscreen print of Confetti #34 by Kurt Vonnegut and Joe Petro III, with limitation number 6 of 63, 2005. Two-color silkscreen print on white Rising Stonehenge deckle edge cotton paper. The print shows a handwritten statement by Kurt Vonnegut regarding author and journalist Hunter Thompson, which reads: "Hunter Thompson was the most creatively crazy of the new journalists. His ideas were brilliant and honorable and valuable, the literary equivalent of cubism. All rules were broken." Below the text is a profile self-sketch of Vonnegut's head in red ink, with his signature inside of the neck in pencil. Framed in black with white mat.

Vonnegut and artist Joe Petro III created a series of silkscreen prints titled Confetti from c. 2004-2007 at Petro's Lexington, KY studio space. Calling themselves "Origami Express," Vonnegut and Petro made 62 versions of limited edition prints in the Confetti series, often showing Vonnegut's handwritten thoughts and small doodles. Vonnegut described the Confetti series on a website posting in 2004: "Confetti is Origami's response to the in-your-face lack of meaning or message in so much modern art, starting, perhaps, with Mondrian, and of course excluding the strikingly communicative Cubists, but surely including the intellectually and morally blank works by the so-called 'Abstract Expressionists.' Origami says to the latter, with pictures as didactic as this one, 'If you have absolutely nothing to say to anybody, can't you please shut up?' — K.V. 8/8/04"

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) was an American author known for his dark humor and satirical outlook on American society. Vonnegut was born into a prominent German-American family in Indianapolis, IN, on November 11, 1922. Vonnegut briefly attended Cornell University before enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II. Vonnegut fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he and 50 other American soldiers were captured on December 22, 1944. Vonnegut was taken by train to Dresden, Germany, where he lived in a slaughterhouse as a prisoner of war. He survived the Allied firebombing of Dresden in February 1945, later writing about his experiences in what became his most well-known novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).

After the war, Vonnegut studied at the University of Chicago before working for General Electric as a publicist and reporter. Vonnegut left GE in 1951 to pursue writing full time, and published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, Vonnegut struggled as a writer. His next published novel was a science fiction story, The Sirens of Titan (1959). He continued to write novels and short stories to support himself throughout 1960s, including Cats Cradle (1962), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) and a collection of short stories titled Welcome to the Monkey House (1968). His 1969 semi-autobiographical novel Slaughterhouse-Five recounted his time as a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied firebombing of the city and the effect that experience had on him later in life. Slaughterhouse-Five propelled Vonnegut into mainstream success, peaking at #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, and five plays during his lifetime, with several other works published posthumously. In his later years, Vonnegut became an unwitting cultural icon, with his sarcastic wit tempering his views on society. Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, in New York City, as a result of injuries from a fall.

Joe Petro III (b. 1956) is an American printmaker, sculptor, and artist. He creates works from his Lexington, Kentucky studio, where he partnered with Kurt Vonnegut to produce a series of art prints in the early 2000s.

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) was an American journalist and author known for creating the "Gonzo" journalism genre, where the lines between fiction and nonfiction are blurred and the writer is a participant and critical figure in the events being reported. Thompson began his journalism career at a young age and traveled throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and South America working as a freelance journalist. Thompson's 1966 story about the Hells Angel motorcycle club, which he adapted into a 1967 novel Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, was his first widely successful work and told of his time living amongst the group's chapters in San Francisco and Oakland, California.

In 1971, Thompson wrote a serialized article for Rolling Stone on his experiences with Mexican-American activist and attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta while in Las Vegas, and was later published as the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Continuing to hone his first-person Gonzo journalism style, Thompson wrote of himself (as Raoul Duke) and Dr. Gonzo (Acosta) searching for the American Dream in Las Vegas while exploring themes such as drug use and the 1960s counterculture movement. In 1972, he was hired by Rolling Stone to cover that year's presidential election, which led to the publishing of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 first as a serialized set of Rolling Stone articles and later as a 1973 novel.

Thompson's Gonzo persona became part of his real life personality, where he often credited his use of alcohol and illicit drugs as the key to his creativity. He earned a cult following later in life as his works were adapted into major motion pictures. The 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starred Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo, helping to further Thompson's cultural mystique.

Thompson lived out his later years at Owl Farm, his home outside of Aspen, Colorado. He published infrequently until 2000, when he wrote a weekly sports column for ESPN until his death. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Owl Farm on February 20, 2005.