As an art historian, there are certain moments when you must forego all analysis. You just have to step aside and say, "This is art, pure art".
This is a plastic model. Created in the 70's. And you might still be able to buy it on the net.
I here concentrate on the mere image, the pictorial side of it. The box cover with the desert scene and all.
It might me "pure camp", it might only be a piece of popular culture... bit there's more to it than that.
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I remember this image from my youth. It made an indelible impression on the young me.
Now for this very image, the box-art itself of the vehicle in the desert...
It touches on something elemental.
For as we know, "the desert" is the true mythical setting... it's like a clean stage where you can place anything... "what you see in the desert is the real"...
In other words, the desert war was mythical and this artefact plays on that. It gains its immense power from this setting.
Then we have aspects like "WWII, German army, controversial"... well indeed, that plays along... like portraying Rommel as a skeleton, a horror figure... maybe the devil himself... Rolling Stones springs to mind here:
I rolled a tank and held a general's rank
when blitzkrieg ranged and bodies stenched...
Rommel's Rod is an alchemical mix of Kustom Kar Kulture, WWII myth, and desert myth, all expressed in an exquisite painting and an elegantly created concept. Therefore this is timeless art.
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