From "The Running Man" (1987)
The TV Show has a big success and the producer says to his team.
Listen up, everybody. I want you to all to consider yourselves picked
up for the rest of the season, okay?*people look at him remaining silence although he obviously expected they'd be glad. Producer continues:
What are you, my people or an oil painting? We're up nine points!
I don't know what does "an oil painting" mean in that context. I know that "not an oil painting" means unattractive person, but I got something different here, right?
Best Answer
This is certainly not the normal usage of the expression an oil painting which, as you say, is normally only used in the negative- "she's no oil painting"- about somebody who is not particularly attractive.
Note that the idiom must be used in the negative. If you say it in the positive- "she's an oil painting"- it does not match the pattern for that idiom: that's why the producer is able to use it in the positive sense with a very different meaning.
What I think the producer means is that the people are sitting or standing perfectly still, like the people in this oil painting: