David Mann (painter) - Work

Work

Mann's illustrations are usually bombastically narrative, though occasionally allegorical, conveying simple, direct messages in much the same way as a Norman Rockwell painting.

One of Mann's frequent motifs was a motorcycle and its rider paired with a complementary or contrasting figure. The simplest form is the iconic image of two bikes on the road side by side, and out of this grew different permutations that spanned 30 years. There are three main variations.

The first is a biker alongside a kindred figure, such as a trucker or other archetypal, biker-sympathetic character, or else a biker shadowed by a ghostly, mythic figure from the past, such as a medieval knight, Wild West gunfighter or trapper. The two will have several matching clothing items, or have an identical facial appearance in order to ensure the viewer does not fail to appreciate that the biker is a modern incarnation of the mythic persona.

Secondly, the biker would be seen alongside a social antagonist, such as hostile but foolish police officers, square motorists, or an upper-class caricature of The Man who is irritated by his wife's, daughter's or son's obvious admiration for and longing to ride away with the biker.

The third variation has a female figure, sometimes supernatural and watching over the biker from the sky, perhaps looming in the rider's memories, or else a real woman motorcycle passenger or woman in the background watching the biker ride away. Women are almost never depicted as riding their own bikes or taking part in the action; they are observers, sex objects or passengers. Their facial expressions are either vacant or filled with lust and admiration directed at the biker and his bike. Sometimes women are shown negatively as a sexual distraction which causes the biker to neglect his bike or his biker buddies.

Mann painted three works where women are shown riding. One has a male and a female rider side by side on a road, and another has two women riding side by side on trikes at night, both with nothing remarkable happening. In the other, a confused and frightened looking woman is shown attempting to ride a motorcycle, but she is out of control and being thrown off. While most of Mann's depictions of women are more sexist than is usually the norm in mainstream society today, some of his works are outright hostile to women, for example, a depiction of "Bike Heaven" shows bikers about to pass the pearly gates, but first stopping shop and barter at a sign saying "Chicks sale or trade make offer."

A subset of Mann's work, apart from these variations, is more surrealist and often leaves out choppers and bikers entirely. Instead, the motifs are usually skulls, flames, nude women and tattoos, often playing with the figurative image which is tattooed on the skin coming to life.

One of the messages contained in Mann's overall body of work is an unresolved tension between, on one side, the biker artist's (painter, chopper builder, performance artist) craving for attention and recognition for biker art and the biker lifestyle in the mainstream world of middle-class straights and squares; and, on the other side, a rejection of that very same world based on the biker preference for biker values over mainstream values, and the need to show the squares and their opinions have no power over the biker. The biker/artist is aloof, yet bristles when ignored or disparaged and seeks ways of getting the right kind of attention.

A further contrast is apparent in the repeated theme of the honor and nobility of the biker, depicting bikers as modern knights or similar mythic heroes, and the appearance of members of Mann's El Forastero Motorcycle Club in many of his paintings, a club whose members have been found guilty for the crimes motorcycle theft and for "transporting and distributing methamphetamine" after it was discovered the club members pooled money to buy narcotics at their organized events.