The idea of the American Dream is embedded within the Declaration of Independence, a crucial document within American history that prescribes each citizen the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These inalienable rights grant citizens the freedom to pursue prosperity, happiness, and success through hard work and perseverance. As defined by James Truslow Adams in 1931, the American Dream is the fulfillment of this ability to achieve both external and internal gratification from a life in the United States. Whether it is upward social mobility or uplift, America is regarded as a place where equality in opportunity and society is exercised as the moral and political basis of the nation. While the existence of the American Dream seemed promising and even achievable in America’s history, many modern-day scholars tell a different story. With multiple financial crises looming over America’s shoulders over the last couple decades, the dream seems to be all but a myth. Specifically, 1980s America marked a period in time when the United States was facing huge uncertainties regarding its relationship with the Soviet Union conflict as well as a severe economic recession. With more than 10% of Americans unemployed, the early 80s was identified as the largest recession since the Great Depression. The American Dream seemed lost within the rubble of post-war America. Art provides a unique glimpse within history through cultural, social, and political perspectives and, in this case, a unique view on the American Dream and its continuation in modern America. It serves as a projection of opinions and thoughts onto a canvas, photograph, or other medium of expression, directing viewers and audiences to sustain political thought. Lozowick writes: “A composition is most effective when its elements are used in a double function: associative, establishing contact with concrete objects of the real word and aesthetic, serving to create plastic values” (Lozowick 19) Here, Lozowick identifies art’s dual function; that is, art maintains a certain contact with the real world while serving and sustaining an imaginative purpose—having a creative and social value. Art, thus, serves to use such identifications with the real world as a means to make an argument about reality through an aestheticized production. Art and the associated discourses are then inextricably linked to one another as integral pieces of history that can be unraveled to expose truths that may be hidden within cultural works. Eric Fischl puts Lozowick’s idea of a double function to work in his 1986 oil painting “The Black Sea.” In this painting, Fischl explores the ambiguities behind the American Dream. While on the surface Fischl’s work seems to glorify the existence of leisure, extravagance, and freedom, a patriotic representation of post-war America and a supportive claim for the existence of the American Dream, upon closer inspection, it actually provides a more cynical picture on America, concluding that the American Dream only exists in the realm of fantasy and that the identity of America is nothing more than a façade that covers it’s true “nakedness” or materiality. The title of Fischl’s painting, “The Black Sea,” provides a first look at Fischl’s argument. Here, the adjective “black” can be seen as both literal and metaphorical. In its most literal sense, the Black Sea is a body of water north of the Mediterranean Sea bordered by many European countries and modern-day Russia. It received its name due to its violent tendencies to swallow sailors in its dark stormy waters. Metaphorically, the color black is usually associated with death, scars, and forms of emptiness. It is a color of darkness and death, both key ideas associated with its literal identification. The title starkly differs from the painting’s picturesque portrayal of leisure. The irony involved in the discrepancy between the actual depiction in the painting and its title emphasize that America and the American Dream is in fact blackened, scarred, and more extremely, all but dead. The violent storm of the Cold War and economic crisis has all but swept away any life that attempts to sustain itself within the frame of the painting. The violent nature indicated by the painting’s title also resonates with Fischl’s unique style of presentation. Fischl focuses less on the detail of his subject matter but rather on the overall composition of his piece. In his painting, the people’s facial expressions and the miscellaneous leisurely items are obscured and unclear. While the subjects are not completely emotionless and are clear enough to associate with real world objects, viewers struggle to determine Fischl’s artistic meaning with a merely direct confrontation of his work. Fischl, thus, invites viewers to read into the ambiguity of these faces and objects. Its unclear quality and the aforementioned title place this painting within the context of Cold War America, highlighting the confusing and often chaotic times that defined that period. Even more extremely, Fischl’s brush stroke may be viewed as a purposeful effort to obscure his subjects—an explicit act by the author to blur the identities of his subjects. This reading, alongside the idea of blackness, proffers a similar conclusion that the idea of the American Dream is in fact separated from the identities of the subjects within the painting. That is, the hazy style of painting points to the inability for the individuals to fulfill the American Dream. In addition to the presentation of his painting, the composition and construction of his painting also adds another level of complication to Fischl’s message. His painting is in actuality two individual pieces that overlap over one another. His art, then, is more than just a two-dimensional piece of work; the canvas extends into the viewer’s space, providing motion and a sense of time through space. This effect brings the subjects within his work to life and directly juxtaposes his painting with another closely related industry of art: film. His painting is thus a storyboard and can be read as a record of time, a chronological capture of motion that heightens his claim that the American Dream may have disappeared through time. When analyzing the subject matter of Fischl’s work, however, these images and their metaphorical reincarnation yield a disconcerting response in the viewers. Fischl paints a picture of a naked man and woman at the beach, seemingly tanning their bodies as they enjoy a water and soda. The man is seen stroking the woman’s body as she lies on what looks to be a foam pad covered with a towel. The woman dons a fancy pair of sunglasses and is seen beside a single black high heel. On the right side, the same naked woman is seen lying on the beach with nothing but her sunglasses, staring back at herself and the man beside her. At first glance, this painting seems to showcase the American Dream at its finest. Nudity, here, is a liberating act of freedom and the fancy heels, glasses, and pads clearly place the woman and man within the context of leisure. Upon closer inspection, however, viewers are forced to consider the implications of the woman on the right. Her gaze can be interpreted in two ways. First, her gaze can be one of remembrance. That is, the two paintings are composed in chronological order, indicating that the woman somehow loses and is stripped of everything that makes her activity one of leisure. This reading matches Fischl’s compositional style and presentation of his painting. The subject is naked and alone, scorching and burning from the sun’s hot rays. This image, thus, highlights the effect of downward social mobility. Several questions come to light when forming this conclusion: Who is the man beside her? What kind of relations do they have? Fischl gives us clues that, although ambiguous, give room for multiple interpretations. He does, however, point to a more erotic and dark reading. That is, the man may have indeed raped the woman and taken her belongings. Society, especially in a time of economic and political turmoil, grants no room for this woman to fulfill the American Dream and rapes individuals unto they are forced to give up everything they have. While this is only one reading, an alternative reading may suggest that her gaze is indeed one of longing. The composition separates herself from the picturesque ideal of the American Dream; the woman was and will never be that woman in the left painting because she and the man himself are only a figment of her imagination. Although she desires such a life of affection, leisure, and money, this life only exists in her fantasies. Regardless of the viewer’s interpretation, the conclusion seems to be the same: Fischl concludes that in a society marred by an uncertain political and economic climate, individuals are unable to achieve the American Dream. “The Black Sea” is a cultural reflection of a point in United States history filled with many questions regarding the future. Fischl remarks on the absence of social mobility during this time and highlights the prevalence of immorality through his nude figures. The lack of clarity, both politically and socially, of the United States can be seen through not only the painting’s title, but also its presentation, composition, and subject matter. The painting, however, offers an additional clue that may dispel the American Dream and its existence altogether. That is, even in the left fantastical image, the woman is still incomplete; she is not seen with clothes and only has one heel. Perhaps, Fischl is claiming that the American Dream, from its beginnings, was never a reality and was always a work of the imagination, a myth that is swallowed up by “The Black Sea.” Works Cited Fischl, Eric. The Black Sea. 1986. Oil. Princeton Museum of Art, Princeton University. Lozowick, Louis. "The Americanization of Art." Machine-Age Exposition Catalogue. N.p.: n.p., 1927. 18-19. Print.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
writersSamuel C Archives
September 2014
Categories
All
|