FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Monday, April 4, 2011

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE: PAINTING SERIES BY THOMAS COLE, AMERICAN SCHOOL

Thomas Cole is one of my favorite nineteenth century landscape painters.  He founded the Hundson River School of painting.  His rich and dark pallette is very similar to that of various Italian and Dutch schools.  Of particular interest is his painting series called, The Voyage of Life executed around 1840.  The first of the canvases shown above is called "Childhood."  In this canvas a young male child emerges from the dark womb of the mountain acompanied by a guardian angel.  The boat is carved with rich roccocco figures gilded and happy, allegories of the emotions and carelessness of childhood.  The boat emerges into a world pristine and primordial, lush and vivacious. 

  "Youth," being sent out into the  world by the guardian angel watches while the young man proceeds on his journey.  The expressions and postures of the figures in the boat have changed, they are no longer babes but now wear more serious countenances.  In the far background is a faboulous edifice that appears to be composed of cloud vapour.  This structure reminds me of the fanciful and hauntingly modern structures that Titian placed in his landscapes.  Perhaps the edifice is an allegory for democracy since it appears to be a much stylized US Capitol building, or a mirage of an updated St. Peters.  It seems to represent the hopes and aspirations of a young, civic minded man...

"Manhood,"is an acute departure from youth.  The Landscape becomes treacherous, a dark stormy pall overtakes the once pastoral and edenesque landscape.  Rapids portend a hazardous journey and the figures carved into the boat take on the countenance and posture of alarm and fear for what may lay ahead.  Everything about the landscape has changed.  Through a fissure in the gloom a patch of borrowed landscape shows a beautiful evening sky but this reality is far from the one our subject will presently encounter. 

"Old Age," the boat has been wrecked by the rapids, its carefully crafted figures are broken and shattered.  the terrestrial landscape has dissapeared.  In medieval literature, "The Sea," was a metaphor for heaven.  the angel which had been watching the man from afar in the paintings now comes down to welcome the man and relieve him of his mortal journey.  A host of angels await him in the nimbus cutting through the cumulonimbus clouds.  He is at the end of his long journey.  The seascape is serene but ominous and the aolian landscape is threatening and tempestuous as if it is only being held at bay by for this brief time of transitiion. 

If you ever have time please go to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to view this incredible series.  When I was in high school I would cut school to sketch the great masters and study their work.  This painting has remained one of my favorites and each time I see it again I gain deeper insight into its meaning. 

Victorians lived closer to mortality than modern people do today.  They more intimately experienced the inevitable transition from birth to death than we  do today.  This series celebrates life and suggests that we make our impressions now and that we are on lifes journey alone with little time to waste and no chance to go back to redo what has been done...
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