Sufira Freeman: Art & Survival

 To whom it may concern,

With the uprise of the deadly virus sweeping across the nation, I am tasked with selecting three works of art that will go into a protective vault, one that is hoped to stand strong for an extended period of time, while the world is in chaos. I trust in you to help me with this endeavor to ensure the protection of these works of art, so that the future of our civilization may look back on these three paintings. We do not have the manpower nor the resources to save anymore paintings without putting ourselves at risk for the virus that has quickly spread throughout each and everyone of our homes. The three works of art with corresponding reasonings for each are as followed:

Robert Longo an American artist was born in 1953 in Long Island, New York. During his time in highschool, he started a protest against the invasion of Cambodia. In 2014, his artwork became more recognized with the use of charcoal while raising awareness of environmental issues as well as the long term impact that man has over nature. According to Robert Longo’s website, in his bibliography, he said and I quote, “Art is an attempt to try and understand our own contemporary situation through making images that are completely personal, while also addressing our social context.”. The Artwork that he created that is on the list to save is his ‘Untitled May 23’ NO. 2 artwork that was created in 2013. It is a large piece of artwork with its dimension 60 x 82 inches with the medium charcoal on mounted paper.

This work of art is quite fascinating to any viewer for it is a black silhouette of a tree in the foreground while the background is a ray of light shining through the art piece. This symbolizes that even our darkest days, especially during a virus outbreak that has killed three billion people thus far, there will always be light shining through on those days. There will be days where all hope seems to be lost, but that shouldn’t stop us from pushing forward and doing the best that we can for our survival. If hope is forever lost, then people will continue to give up and not put their best efforts to ensure our continued survival and safety. Hope is what drives people onward, even if the dark days seem like the worst that has ever come. This art piece will show that light will always come through the darkness and that there will always be good things that are out there for us. When this art piece was created, it probably came off as a dark and eerie sense with a scattering of dark branches that get thinner and lighter the farther it goes back. It is a fairly complex piece that displays just how much control Longo has over the charcoal. 

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous and most talked about artists in history, alongside the four renaissance painters who are also very influential and famous. His oil on canvas ‘Almond Blossom’ with dimensions of 28.9 x 36 inches, is a complex art piece that has a lot of details on the branches and flowers. This painting is a decent size and has numerous branches that break off and go in their own directions that touch the edges of canvas. It is also complex with weaving of the branches that go over and under other corresponding branches in the vicinity. This piece of artwork was a major piece of art for his own family and was adored and loved by his family members who named their new baby after him. An article on this work of art wrote, “The painting was a gift for Vincent’s newborn nephew. The boy was born on 31 January 1890, and Theo and his wife Jo named him Vincent, after his uncle,”. This to me explains that there is always something pure and innocent to look forward to. It is something to wonder about, that something as a painting can bring such joy to those around you and for those who share in its sentiments. Nature is a beautiful thing that can be shared with just about one and when you have a hard day's work, it is something peaceful to get a glimpse at. During a crisis of any kind or magnitude when you are only seeing the bad that is around you, it is also important to see something calming, peaceful and over pretty to look at.

Rafael Troya is an Ecuadorian landscape painter who was invited to an exhibition to look at Ecuador’s many volcanoes. That exhibition resulted in one of his paintings called ‘Cotopaxi' that was created in 1874 with oil on canvas that was 36.6 x 63.3 inches big.  This painting was of a landscape with a volcano in the far distance with many others in the far background while there was a bumpy road that led further into said painting. There is an abundance of many hills that all lead up to the volcano with vibrant colors in the foreground. Troya paid close attention to detail and accuracy in the scientific field, making this piece of art particularly perfect to the actual volcano. This painting was finished a year before the large volcano erupted, causing chaos for any passerby or resident of the land to be worried about its eruption. We all know that volcanoes can cause a lot of damage and are highly destructive with its lava flow, however, volcanoes can also bring prettier and more vibrant flowers as well as creating new land mass with the lava hardening. Picturing the Americas wrote on their website, “view of the volcano Cotopaxi, demonstrates the attention to detail required of scientific illustration as it depicts a trace of the lava that erupted the year the painting was completed and offers detailed renderings of low vegetation and open skies,” (3).This piece of art is worth preserving because it shows that there is always something to look forward to and that there is a new beginning that will unfold with endless possibilities, like how volcanoes can had new land mass and make prettier flowers, it is also a wonder to behold like how tall that one volcano was in comparison to everything else in the foreground. 

Bibliography

• “ROBERT LONGO.” 2009. Robertlongo.com. 2009. https://www.robertlongo.com/bio/.

• “What You Need to Know about van Gogh’s Almond Blossom.” n.d. Van Gogh Museum. https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/stories/all-stories/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-van-goghs-almond-blossom.

• “Cotopaxi (Vista de La Cordillera Oreintal Desde Tiopullo (View of the Oriental Moutain Range from Tiopullo)),” Picturing the Americas, July 28, 2015, http://picturingtheamericas.org/painting/cotopaxi-vista-de-la-cordillera-oreintal-desde-tiopullo-view-of-the-oriental-moutain-range-from-tiopullo/.