Them and Us — Daily Hue for July 29, 2026
Neil Jenney · 1969 · National Gallery of Art
Hidden color: Moderate Sapphire (#3f82c9)
About this puzzle
Two fighter jets cut across a huge blue sky in Them and Us, but the painting is less straightforward than it first appears. One aircraft carries American markings, while the other represents the Soviet side, placing two Cold War rivals in the same open space. The title makes the contrast even more direct: there is a “them” and an “us,” but both planes are flying through the same sky. Neil Jenney was born in 1945 and emerged in New York's art scene during the late 1960s. His work pushed back against the increasingly abstract and minimalist art of the period, instead using recognizable objects and deliberately simple imagery. His paintings from this period helped establish the realist approach that became an important part of his career.
Painted in 1969, Them and Us uses acrylic and graphite on canvas and is remarkably large, stretching more than eleven feet across. The two aircraft immediately suggest the political tension of the Cold War, but Jenney does not turn the scene into a conventional battle. Instead, the planes simply share the same enormous, swirling blue sky. The expressive brushwork gives the background a surprising amount of movement, while the aircraft themselves are rendered clearly enough to recognize their opposing identities. That combination of simple imagery and a loaded title makes the painting especially interesting to look at. It asks a fairly simple question: if “them” and “us” are separated by politics, borders, and ideology, what happens when both sides occupy the exact same space?