Dj Vu All Over Again

This book is about a single, extraordinary painting: Otis Kaye’s Déjà Vu? The painting tells the story of the stock market crash of 1929 and the years until 1937 by using a wide variety of financial documents such as bills, stock certificates, ticker tape and coins to show the ups and downs of the Dow Jones Industrial Average – the DJIA. The title of the painting is a pun and a question that asks the viewer: “déjà vu” – have we seen this before? Otis Kaye is considered the last of the great trompe l’oeil painters, recognized primarily for his pictures of American currency. This publication was written to coincide with the exhibition Art and illusion. Masterpieces, of tromp l’oeil from antiquity to the present day (Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 16 October 2009/ 24 January 2010).