In 1950, Richard Nixon ran for California’s vacant U.S. Senate seat against Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. The campaign was fierce. It was a time of witch-hunts and blacklisting, and fears of “Communist” infiltration. Nixon claimed that Douglas, a former actress, was “pink right down to her underwear.” In response, Douglas created the famous epithet, “Tricky Dick.” Nixon won the seat by more than a half million votes, and as a senator, he went on to attack President Harry S. Truman’s handling of the Korean War, and fanned the fears of “Global Communism.” I made this image in the Museum’s gallery on Nixon’s Senate Campaign. It shows a young Nixon as a life-sized cardboard figure, illuminated by a spotlight, speaking to fedora wearing cardboard characters representing voters. Nixon stands on the bumper of the actual car, outfitted with a loud speaker, that he used during this campaign. This image has a surreal quality to it – the lack of dimension and monochromatic nature of the figures bizarrely contrast to the old automobile. It speaks of a dark time in our nation’s history, a time replete with demagoguery and fear mongering. In time, Nixon would become Vice President and later President of the United States, and after the Watergate scandal he became the first president to resign in disgrace. No matter what his accomplishments, to many he would always be remembered as “Tricky Dick.”