Prior to the Bradys, the prop showed up in the film Bell, Book, and Candle (1958), as well as the TV series Bewitched (1964-1972). Its onscreen career rivals that of many actors. The horse statue is perhaps the most iconic piece on the series because of its noticeable spot in the main room. Top: living room horse sculpture bottom left: horse painting at the top of the stairs bottom right: horse statuette in the family room The Living Room It is unclear whether this is the result of less-than-vigilant set dressers or a class five haunting. It’s also worth noting that much of the art is repeatedly repositioned throughout the course of the show. There’s little chance of finding intentional parallels between the characters and their surroundings, but that needn’t stop us from applying our own meaning. According to the The Brady Bunch Blog, the sets are full of props and artwork that previously appeared in other Paramount-produced television shows. The production designers didn’t construct the Brady aesthetic from scratch. This makes the family seem real and relatable to the viewer-until you remember that they have a live-in housemaid. Like most Americans, the Brady’s humble art collection largely consists of commercially produced prints. The subjects were intentionally innocuous in contrast to the art world at large, where bold personalities emerged to break every conceivable convention. During this era, original art was often replicated by an assembly line of contract artists working under shared pseudonyms. Companies like Turner Wall Accessory produced and reproduced hundreds of prints with the home decor market in mind. After World War II, art was industrialized like never before in order to meet the demand for something to cover the walls of tens of thousands of new American homes. To point out the generic nature of the Brady’s artistic taste isn’t to say they weren’t on trend. My work is sure to be a treat for anyone who loves art, or The Brady Bunch, or tedious overanalysis. In some cases specific artists, pieces, and manufacturers have been unearthed, filling a gaping informational void on the internet. It began as a lark, but it became a personal opus that surpassed the simple room-by-room inventory I envisioned. I’ve detailed the Brady family art collection and elaborated on the trends and styles that it represents. What follows is an examination of that which is meant to be ignored. Apart from a few exceptions, Brady wall art is practically invisible, begging to be upstaged by Mike’s designs, which include both the house and the family that lives there. Yet the Brady’s choice of household artwork seems oddly uninspired. The family’s fashion arc went from Ozzie and Harriet in season one to post-sixties extremes in season three. After all, the setting is an architect father’s passion project, accoutered with what Carol Brady once described as Danish Modern furniture. The world of The Brady Bunch can be defined by a conspicuous style.
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