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: : kevan nitzberg
death
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This article examines some artistic interpretations of death and dying, searching
for possible definitions. Images with a red border are links to larger views.
Crouching
by a dark pool, deeply engaged in thought, a young woman is blissfully oblivious
to her environment whose surreal, anthropomorphic forms complete with watchful
eyes, appear to reflect some indeterminable menace as illustrated in Max
Ernst's the eye of silence.
So
deep in meditation, she is even deaf to the ear wrenching scream of nature,
that deafens Munch's
man on the bridge.
This
is certainly not someone of a mind to do battle with the forces of the night,
as depicted in Raphael's st george and the dragon.
Nor
does she cringe from some unnamed terror, frozen with fear as depicted in Guglielmi's
1956 painting, terror in brooklyn.
Rather
there is a peacefulness that seems to define her posture, even a waiting for that
which might come along in this surreal place that she finds herself in. Not quite
the same state of peace that David's
Marat is depicted in after his assassination, mind you, but that image is
still trapped in the physical world after all.
Her
world appears to be more akin to the afterlife explored by Robin
William's character in the film, what dreams may come, the landscapes
traversed at one moment similar to a 'Daliesque' assemblage of melting
clocks and a starkly contrasted wintry vista in another, typified in Andrew
Wyeth's winter, 1946.
Still, the skeletal, decomposing remains of the human form are more frequently
called to mind when we imagine mortality and the closure with which death is typically
viewed. Images of skeletal hordes marching on the living in Brueghel's
triumph of death, or Jose
Clemente Orozco's metaphorical use of skeletons in his works, such as the
gods of the modern world above. These are more of a literal translation
for how death is often depicted.
The
almost iconographical use of skulls and bones brings to mind the shortness of
life and the finality that comes with death. Commercialized and demonized excursions
into this aspect of modern pop culture inundate us on a daily basis. A torrent
of horror films, TV shows, books, cartoon images and even video games, take the
bogey man out from under the bed time and time again to titillate, frighten and
entertain us, parading our darkest misgivings and fears in front of our eyes.
Yet it is also
undeniable that the world itself has become a very dangerous place in which to
live, creating a growing climate for this particular genre of death-centered imagery.
Evidence of the possibility of this global devastation is the power we have to
militarily destroy ourselves time and time again ( in spite of the official 'end'
of the Cold War Era), our intensely fast-paced consumer culture producing a seemingly
limitless supply of toxic material, the continued chasm that divides the ends
of the economic spectrum putting greater numbers of people at risk of dying from
starvation and disease.
Closer
to home are the mounting traffic fatalities, drug overdoses and incomprehensible
mass shootings in schools, businesses or on the street. Into the sanctuary of
images we plunge, hoping ultimately to push away the shroud of darkness that surrounds
this unknown passage or end in the road that death brings. Gericault's
raft of the medusa, portrays a very dour vision of those who have succumbed
to the elements after drifting on a raft in the open sea. In creating the composition,
Gericault is
said to have used actual corpses as models to be able to catch a realistic
portrayal of death in his painting.
There
seems to be a great fascination with that part of our existence that defines the
termination of life as we know it. Perhaps it is the hope of the journey rather
than the finality that is portrayed in our visualization of death, that really
fires our collective imagination. Whole cultures from the time of antiquity have
embraced this concept from the Ancient
Egyptians whose belief system in the afterlife was so strong as to consider
the possibility of fertility in the hereafter. Then there is of course the celebration
of life after death through the Resurrection of Christ as seen in this
link to illuminated manuscripts. Our idealized views of the after-life that
remains a focal point in the considerable number of religions believed in by a
majority of the world's population, continues to hold fast to the idea that living
as we experience it on earth is but only one leg of what we have defined as existence.
Kevan Nitzberg
is an art educationalist and Minnesota Educator of the Year, 2000. To suggest
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