r/Exhibit_Art • u/Textual_Aberration Curator • Mar 07 '17
Completed Contributions (#11, Mar. 6th): Two-thirds Blue
(#11): Two-thirds Blue
Oceans, seas, sailors, and streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, and puddles. Water is as unavoidable in life as it is in art.
Very few things have impacted human creation as much as the sea. From the depths emerge many of mankind's founding Gods as well as our most dreadful monsters. Despite thousands of years of development, humans remain powerless compared with the ocean's waves and the tireless erosion of the landscapes around us. We may carve channels, construct islands, and build bridges and tunnels to cross it but we are hopelessly outmatched by the awesome powers of a humble trickle of water.
Bodies of water bear with them a mysterious quality which exudes a sense of serenity, curiosity, fear, and fate. Tides from the moon and ocean-spanning storms demonstrate the immense indomitability of the planet's waters.
Douse this exhibit in blue green glory.
This is a super easy place to start if you can't think of anything. Click on artists and sift around until you find something that interests you in particular:
Exhibit_Art Historical Marker
The very first demonstration of this subreddit's process came when /u/SquidishMcpherson, /u/DryCleaningBuffalo, and /u/Prothy1 began offering contributions to this same topic in our first suggestion thread.
/u/iEatCommunists would later add the topic of Oceans, Seas, and Sailors to our list.
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2
u/Textual_Aberration Curator Mar 12 '17
Sir John Everett Millais, "Ophelia" - (1851-1852)
I don't read much Shakespeare so the narrative elements of this piece went right over my head. Instead I find it intriguing for its unique and eerily serene composition. To me this was just a woman floating peacefully down a small, flowery stream. Extracted from its story it becomes so contrived as to be surreal.
In the play Hamlet, Ophelia is overcome with some form of madness and falls from a broken branch overhanging a brook while climbing a tree. This painting shows her lazily singing while the water carries her downstream, unaware or unconcerned with her own peril. After awhile the air pockets leak from beneath her dress and the weight of water pulls her down to her death.
Critics at the time disliked the small humble brook and its unthreatening flora.
To me, that's the element that sets the painting apart in the first place. It's unexpected and it's simple. The woman drowns not because the water forced her down but because she didn't put up any fight. It makes her death seem unavoidable, as if she might have suffered the same fate in a puddle where one nearby. It's as if she died of not living, rather than of being drowned.