February 23, 2011

About the turn of the year, I put up a facebook post noting that I was underwhelmed by most of the art critics' selections of "best of" art and I asked any and all to tell me about a piece of art of any period that you love/hate/are fascinated, repulsed or infuenced by - something that touches you deeply in some way. What is it that you respond to and what has it meant to you? I will post them and link them to www.BourgeonOnline.com. Here's the first, by Lenny Campello, DC's own artist, art dealer, fabulous blogger and maven of art: 

Critics Challenge I: Lenny Campello

My favorite?


Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley at the National Gallery of Art. It seeks to depict an event that took place in Havana, Cuba, in 1749.

The naked guy in the water is fourteen-year-old Brook Watson, who was attacked by a shark while swimming alone in Havana harbor. Lucky for Watson, some of his mates were already at sea waiting to escort their captain ashore, and were able to fight the shark and rescue Watson, although the shark bit one of his legs off. On his return to England, he got his fifteen minutes of fame and Copley painted this work.

If you study the painting carefully, you will realize that Copley probably had never seen a shark in his life, and his depiction of the great white in Havana harbour yields one of the most ungainly and ugliest non-sharks fish things ever painted.

I love to sit in front of this painting and watch people as they walk by and get mesmerized by the brutal event taking place and kids making fun of the shark.