2002.9, Wayne Gonzales, Carousel Club, 2001, acrylic on canvas

The Carousel Club in Dallas was the nightclub owned by Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald after learning of Oswald's murder of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Gonzales was born on the same street in New Orleans as Oswald, and a friend of his parents was involved in the investigation of JFK assassination conspiracies. These loose connections compelled Gonzales to collect material related to the assassination, which he later used as a source material for a series of paintings. The artist was fascinated by the extraction - or invention - of narratives from personal details and artifacts related to the case. In this painting, he takes one of Ruby's raunchy ads and colors it a bloody red, likely referencing the conspiracy that Ruby was involved in illicit activities and killed Oswald on behalf of the mob.

Anna Katherine Brodbeck, ed., TWO X TWO X TWENTY: Two Decades Supporting Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art), 2018, 38.

Until 2002: Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY [1]

From 2002: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from above

[1] See copy of check #9526 in Collections Records Object File 2002.9

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