ACROPOLIS

TIME

ACROPOLIS The Art & Art History Publication

Cover | Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 | Marcel Duchamp | 1912 Inside Cover | Erin Spencer ‘14

SPRING ISSUE 2013

Letter from the Editor 6

Articles Lee Bontecou, A Gifted Artist 8-10

Kyle Guzik

Contemporary Artists Egor N 11

Kate Grinnan 12 Harold Edgerton 13

Profiles Ceramics Professor, Mike Jabbur 14

Art and Art History Major, Rachel Dunn 15

Scholarship The Voyage of Life: An Allegory— By Thomas Cole

Josie Drury 16-20

Graduating Seniors

Cover | Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 | Marcel Duchamp | 1912 Inside Cover | Erin Spencer ‘14

SPRING ISSUE 2013

Articles

Editor-in-Chief

Michelle Repper

Executive Article Editor

Matthew Chiarello

Executive Layout Editor

Sofia Chabolla

Executive Photography Editor

Stephanie Krauss

Other Contributors

Aiyana Bodi

Joél Carela

Eric Dale

Josie Drury

Rachel Dunn

Kyle Guzik

Mike Jabbur

Carter Lyon

Erin Spencer

Contributors

Erin Spencer ‘14

Letter from the Editor Dear reader,

Welcome to the Spring 2013 issue of Acropolis magazine. TIME was chosen as the theme for

this semester’s issue as we finish out this academic year with the possibilities of summer ahead of us. The

staff of Acropolis decided on TIME because even though it is such an elemental part of art and the study

of art, it is commonly forgotten or ignored. We wanted to bring it back to the fore of the viewer’s and

scholar’s mind. How do time constraints affect an artist’s work? When is an artwork “finished”? How

does ready-made artwork complicate this dialogue? How long is the life of an artwork? Does restoration

prolong the life of an artwork or draw emphasis to its slow but eventual demise? What does time-lapse

photography capture or exhibit exactly? How do artists change over time (and how is this reflected in

their artistic output)? How do our conceptions of artists differ based on the time span of their oeuvres

(3/4 of a century versus a decade, for example)? How long does/should one look at an artwork? These

are the questions we want circulating in the reader’s mind as s/he flips through this Spring issue of

Acropolis. We (as always) hope s/he questions the parameters of art and the parameters of his/her own

interpretive tools. This is the kind of engagement we hope to engender from the reader. This is how

Acropolis endeavors to positively impact the intellectual community of William & Mary.

On a personal note, this is the last issue of Acropolis for which I will serve as Editor-in-Chief. In

fact it is the last undergraduate magazine that I will be working on at all. I am graduating this semester

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art and Art History and South Asian Studies. TIME seems to be a par-

ticularly relevant theme for me as I reflect on my four years at William & Mary and plan out my future. I

would like to express my gratitude here for all of those who helped shape this idea into the successful

magazine it is today. I suppose I would also like to offer some advice. William & Mary has wonderful

resources and a particularly wonderful Art and Art History Department. Take advantage of all of the op-

portunities available to you! If my experience is any indicator, you definitely won’t regret it.

Thank you for listening.

Editor-in-Chief

Michelle Suzanne Repper, Class of 2013

Lee Bontecou, A Gifted Artist By Kyle Guzik

Lee Bontecou is an eminent female visual artist, who is best known for the work that she created from 1959-1967 (Smith, 2003). Bonte-cou’s work has proven resistant to classification. It is associated with cubism, modernism, feminist art, minimalism, and post-minimalism (Smith, 2003). Her most well known pieces are hybrids of painting and sculpture, composed of patches of canvas attached to a steel and wire frame. However, Bontecou has demonstrated profi-ciency in a great variety of media including char-coal, ink, stone, and ceramics. She was a major innovator in vacuum-formed plastic sculpture, a process in which plastic is melted and formed into a shape with a mold under low pressure. Her work depicts conceptions of war, the space age, and biotechnology. Part of the public fasci-nation with Bontecou’s work is explained by the prescience exhibited in her pieces, their relation-ship to the future, which remains remarkable and apparent in recent retrospectives. Born on January 15, 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island, Bontecou grew up in Westchester County, New York (Smith, 2003). Bontecou’s fa-ther and uncle invented the first all-aluminum ca-noe, and her mother worked in a factory wiring submarine transmitters during World War II (Smith, 2003). The family spent summers in Nova Scotia, which led to Bontecou’s lifelong ap-preciation of the natural world and marine life in particular (Smith, 2003). Bontecou studied at Bradford College in Massachusetts and then at-tended the Art Students League in New York from 1952 -1955 under the mentorship of sculp-tor William Zorach (Smith, 2003). Bontecou won a Fulbright scholarship in 1956 and lived in Rome from 1956-1958 (Smith, 2003). She first exhibited her work in Spoleto, Italy in 1957 (Smith, 2003). Bontecou married the artist William Giles and the couple had a daughter, Valerie, in 1966 (Smith, 2003). Bontecou withdrew from the art world af-ter 1971 but continued to create art (Smith, 2003). In 2001, Bontecou began to exhibit new work again, and contributed new work to her first major retrospective, organized at the Hammer Museum at the University of Los Angeles in 2002

(Smith, 2003). Bontecou’s life and work may be consid-

ered in the context of the theories of Jean Piaget

relating to cognitive and affective development.

Piaget believed that object concept is developed

through experience (Wadsworth, 1996). Piaget

described a series of stages beginning with sen-

sorimotor development, followed by preopera-

tional thought, development of concrete opera-

tions, and culminating in the development of for-

mal operations (Wadsworth, 1996). Piaget’s

theories have relevant visual implications. Visual

knowing is possible without visual perception but

visual perception is not possible without visual

knowing (Wachs, 1981). Wachs (1981) connects

visual knowledge to all knowledge, which for Pia-

get “has an action character in that it is part of an

overt or covert action, and every action modifies

reality.” Formal operations typically begin to be

formed starting around ages eleven to twelve

(Piaget, 1972). Bontecou created all of her

Untitled, 1962. Welded steel and canvas. 68 x 72 x 30 in. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

significant work well after entering adulthood, which means that she achieved her artistic crea-tive capacity in the formal operational stage. Al-though some adults may never reach this stage, it is apparent from the complexity and sophistica-tion of Bontecou’s work that this caveat does not apply to Bontecou. Therefore, it is most produc-tive to focus on the formal operational stage, as well as its visual implications, when attempting to describe the affective characteristics of gifted-ness that relate to Bontecou. A formal opera-tional personality develops complex morality. In-dividuals functioning at the formal operational level develop a rational understanding of lying as intentionally false (Wadsworth, 2003). In addition within the domain of moral development, “we see an evolution from asocial judgments (expiatory p u n i sh m e n t ) t o s o c ia l j u d g m e n t s (reciprocity)” (Wadsworth, 2003). Piaget distinguished between perception, the immediate first-glance view, and perceptual activity, which involves experience, judgment,

and correction of distorted first impressions (Pulaski, 1980). Piaget referred to the process of correcting distorted visual perceptions as decen-tering (Pulaski, 1980). As opposed to centration, which leads to errors, decentration provides cor-rection and regulation, leading to equilibrium (Pulaski, 1980). Decentration may be consid-ered a component of the processes of construc-tivism. Constructivism can be understood as a process in which new information creates dis-equilibrium. In order to cope with this disequilib-rium the individual undertakes a process of as-similation, which leads to accommodation, if the individual perceives the new information as suffi-cient grounds to revise his or her existing under-standing. In this view of constructivism, decen-tration is a perceptual process that begins with sight. For an individual that constructs knowl-edge visually, decentration becomes a key com-ponent in the process of assimilation. Bontecou may be viewed as a sieve col-lecting conceptual information from her society

Articles Untitled, 1980-1998. Welded steel, porcelain, wire mesh, canvas, and wire. 213.4 x 243.8 x 182.9 cm

and time and producing a filtered distillation, which is an artistic product, and a comment upon that information. However, this statement may appear to be a generality that could be ap-plied towards any number of artists. One com-ponent of Bontecou’s individuality and expres-sive process is an interest in morality and jus-tice. This is most evident in her series of vac-uum-formed plastic sculptures produced in 1969 and 1970, contemporary with the publica-tion of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. These sculptures are depictions of fish and flowers, representational, but at the same time disturb-ing and mutated, commenting upon human in-terference with the natural world. Bontecou may also be understood as an artist who integrates visual knowing and visual perception. This is especially apparent in her works with steel and canvas. These construc-

tions reflect the contradictions inherent to the space age and the Cold War, which were cen-tral historical events unfolding at the time Bon-tecou created these pieces. These works exist visually but encourage the viewer to undergo a process that might be described as constructiv-ist in nature. The work contains new informa-tion that the viewer assimilates, perhaps lead-ing to a sense of accommodation. Bontecou’s steel and canvas pieces transform the viewer’s conceptual premises resulting in a deeper ap-preciation of the viciousness and violence of the era these pieces inhabit. Other works produced by Bontecou are more optimistic, such as a se-ries of ceramic and wire sculptures from the mid 1990s that suggest futuristic spacecraft or colo-nies. Lee Bontecou’s affective characteristics of giftedness are most evident in the effects of her artwork upon the viewer.

1. Piaget, J. (1972). The principles of genetic epistemology. (W. Mays, Trans.) New York, NY: Basic Books (original work published 1970). 2. Pulaski, M. A. S. (1980). Understanding Piaget. New York, NY: Harper & Row. 3. Smith, E. A. T. (2003). Lee Bontecou: A retrospective. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. 4. Wachs, H. (1981). Visual implications of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Journal of Learning Dis-abilities, 14(10), 581-583. 5. Wadsworth, B. J. (1996). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development: Foundations of Construc-tivism (5th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman Publishers USA.

Photograph, the artist in her studio

Egor N

Edgar N’s Coffee Time Series

Coffee Time is a stun-

ning, gravity-defying

photo series that certainly

peaks your imagination

and shows us moments

that we hardly notice in

life. -Beautiful Life

Contemporary Artists Egor N

Katie Grinnan

Based in Los Angeles, Kate Grinnan’s work utilizes techniques of both photography and sculpture to focus on the contrast be-tween visual perception and physical experi-ence. From this distinction, her work aims to highlight individual subjectivity in a highly dis-cordant world. Mirage captures the passing of time through the progression of form through space, drawing attention to one’s self-perception in the environment. Composed of molds of the artist’s body at discrete mo-ments of her yoga ritual, the piece captures the fluid temporality of movement while emit-ting an aura of still serenity. by Cater Lyon

Mirage, 2011, Kate Grinnan, plastic, enamel, and sand, 79 x 63 x 72 in

the contrast between visual perception and

physical experience...

Harold Edgerton Stopping Time Photograph, 1964

Harold Edgerton

the contrast between visual perception and

physical experience...

the fluid temporality of movement ...

Contemporary Artists

Assistant Professor at

The College of William & Mary

M.F.A. Ceramics, Ohio University, 2008

BA Graphic Design, Virginia Tech, 2002

“Utilitarian pots are to be used—to be touched, held, filled,

emptied, cleaned, and shared. These attributes define and

direct my artistic pursuit...I draw connections between the

ceramic vessel and the human body to sanction a means of

understanding...Dynamic movements expressed by the human

body also inspire my sense of form; my pots bend and twist,

wriggle and dance. Such gestures further the associative phe-

nomenon regarding our means of understanding. Concur-

rently, these gestures—especially dance—recall the human act

of celebration. A metaphorical connection is drawn between

colloquial perceptions of human celebration and the meta-

physical celebration that occurs when actively engaging in acts

of eating and drinking.”

Courses Taught:

ART 327 Ceramics: Handbuilding

ART 328 Ceramics: Throwing

ART 416 Adv. Ceramics

ART 443-04 Adv. Independent Study Ceramics

Mike Jabbur

Profiles

Every semester the [Art &

Art History] department

continued to offer unique

classes I could not resist. I was…

pleasantly surprised by the breadth of

courses available to fulfill the art his-

tory major requirements, especially

compared to other majors… [a]rt his-

tory has… allowed me to study relig-

ion, politics, history, art, and culture...

Art & Art History and Marketing Major at

The College of William & Mary

Class of 2013 Selected Papers:

“The Role of Water in the Ancient Andean Civilization of

Tiwanaku”—A look into the “embedded sacredness” of Lake

Titicaca, the Akapana temple, and the Gateway of the Sun,

Art of the Andes

“Buying a Lifestyle”— A look into how the architecture of

America’s suburbs shaped family life in the 1950s, Architec-

ture and Town Planning

“The Legacy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper:”—An

analysis of a broad collection of scholarship and how each art

historian uses the overarching Iconological-Iconographic

Method to interpret Leonardo’s painterly forms, Methods of

Art History

Mike Jabbur

Rachel Dunn

Thomas Cole’s skillful use of expressive land-scape to express transitory change is what sparked my interest in his series of four paintings entitled The Voyage of Life. I had the privilege to view this series at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and once I saw it, I was immediately drawn to it. This collection of works is grand in scale and the imaginative scenery is quite striking. I was also impressed by Cole’s genius allegorical interpretation about the four stages of hu-man life. His series truly shows his ability to create transition through changing picturesque and sublime scenes. Each depicted landscape correlates to a par-ticular stage in an individual human life. I found it most interesting how Cole creates movement through time with the age of the central character, the direction of the Stream of Life, and his descriptive yet ever-changing landscapes. Cole’s powerful imagination certainly seems to be the driving force behind these paintings. In fact, Cole was heavily inspired by the vast expanse of imaginative possibilities that a beauti-ful, picturesque, or sublime landscape could offer. Cole, being a deeply religious man, also emphasized the connection between God and nature. According to Cole, unspoiled nature was where “the spirit and power of the Almighty” resided.1 Through The Voyage of Life, Thomas Cole ultimately wanted to create a series of transitory and allegorical scenes that would convey a strong moral and religious impression.

The work was commissioned by the wealthy New York lawyer, Samuel Ward, in 1839. Ward, like Cole, was also a man of devout faith and wanted this series to reflect his religious beliefs. Unlike one of Cole’s previous series, the Course of Empire (fig. 1), Ward’s commissioned paintings were to be used for personal reflection within his private home rather than as “a course in moral instruction for the public.”2 The paintings were intended to hang in Ward’s drawing room with the first two pictures, Childhood and Youth, hanging near a window to enhance the light and fresh tones. The last two paintings, Manhood and Old Age, which are darker in tone, were meant to hang in a “less well-lighted section of the room.”3 Through his understanding of the effects of light, Cole was able to create a painted scene that matched the natural light in Ward’s home. With this series, Ward hoped to re-mind himself and teach his children to follow a path in life that avoids error and sin.4 Cole was quite thrilled to find such an enthusiastic and devoted patron for The Voyage of Life. The idea for this series was actu-ally conceived some time before Cole received the

The Voyage of Life: An Allegory— By Thomas Cole

By Josie Drury

Figure 1. Thomas Cole, Course of Empire, 1833-36. Oil on canvas. Crystal Bridges Museum. From: On loan from the New York History Society, http://onirrationality.wordpress.com (accessed December 5, 2012).

funds to create it. In a journal entry dated March 24th, 1839, Cole writes,

“I have received a noble commission from Samuel Ward, a commission to paint a Series of Pictures the plan of which I conceived sev-eral years since & had the opportunity of pre-senting to him this Spring. The subject is to be executed in four pictures about 6 ft. 6 in. or 7 ft. long each, and is entitled the Voyage of Life. I earnestly & sincerely hope that I shall be able to execute the work in a manner worthy of Mr. Ward’s liberality and honorable to myself.”5

Though the series was commissioned during the spring of 1839, Cole took the summer months off to get away from the busy life of the city. Within these few months he took a picturesque tour of New Eng-land to find inspiration and to gather new material that would eventually be made into future paintings, in-cluding The Voyage of Life. After returning from his travels, Cole began to work more thoroughly on the first painting of the series, Childhood, in October 1839. Unfortunately, only a month after the series’ official commencement, Samuel Ward passed away. Cole’s spirit in painting this series became temporarily crushed by the news of his patron’s untimely death. But the series was not abandoned for long since Cole was eager to pursue the masterpiece that he and his patron had conceived. The Voyage of Life follows the solitary pilgrim-age of the central male character, who while on his journey along the Stream of Life finds closure and ac-ceptance through his faith in God. In this way, Cole meant to emphasize life as a series of transitory stages that leads to the goal of salvation through God’s divine power. The sequence of this series is an allegorical representation of the four main stages in human life: Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age. Whereas Cole’s Course of Empire (fig. 1) reflects a passage of time from dawn to dusk, this series follows a time sequence that corresponds to the seasons of the year, beginning with blossoming spring in Child-hood and ending with a dark and cold winter in Old Age. Cole’s long time interest in the picturesque has also been included in these four paintings. The pictur-esque style, with its emphasized natural qualities, al-lowed for “the imagination to form the ability to feel through the eyes.”6 So it makes sense why Cole would use a changing picturesque landscape in this series because he truly wanted to create a visual por-trayal of imagination. In these paintings, Cole has successfully combined religious faith, picturesque scenes, and the ages of man to create a poetic and insightful series. The first painting in the series entitled, Child-hood (fig. 2), introduces the voyager, the Guardian Angel, the Stream of Life, and the boat in which the

voyager travels along the stream. These pictorial ele-ments are repeated throughout the entire series but certain aspects of them are subject to change. The natural landscape is formed by a dark cave, sur-rounded by low-hanging clouds, and the beginnings of flowery banks along the stream. The entire landscape in this scene is bathed in a soft, rosy light cast from the rising sun, creating a light and fresh mood. The cave is meant to symbolize the earthly, yet uncertain origins of human life. The Stream of Life is seen flow-ing from this deep cavern and carries the boat with the young child towards the rest of his life. The boat is filled with buds and flowers, creating a sheltered ex-perience for the child as he enters the first stage of life. One flower that is particularly noticeable and sym-bolic is the Egyptian lotus floating on the water’s sur-face, which is a symbol for human life. There is also a figurehead carved out of the prow of the boat that is a personified Hours. The figurehead holds an hourglass to show how just limited human life is. The Guardian

Figure 2. Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Childhood, 1839-40. Oil on canvas, 52 x 78 in. The National Gallery, Washington, D.C. From: Earl A. Powell. Thomas

Cole. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990.

Figure 3. Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1840. Oil on canvas, 52 ½ x 78 ½ in. The National Gallery, Washington, D.C. From: Earl A. Powell. Thomas

Cole. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990.

Scholarship

Angel, who rests her right hand on the boat’s tiller, steers the boat for the child. She gestures with her left hand over the child’s head, as if offering a blessing of safe passage through his life.

Cole, who was making good but slow progress on his series, was often troubled by little details such as how the Guardian Angel’s face should be painted. Cole hoped he could utilize his imagination in a way that could create a convincing and gentle expression for his Angel’s visage. He comically stated, “The An-gel’s face has given me a great deal of trouble. An-gels’ visits to me are really so few and far between that I forget their features.”7 Joking aside, Cole even-tually created the perfect angelic face that expresses a gentle reassurance throughout all four paintings. The child, who is unaware of his Guardian’s pres-ence, observes his strange new world with a childish innocence and wonder. The view beyond the en-trance of the cave is limited as if to represent the child’s narrow view of the world. The child lives in the present, neither looking back into the past nor forward to the future.8 From the lush landscape to the child’s innocence, every element in this painting conveys a sense of freshness and wonder representative of new life.

The second painting in the series, also the second stage of human life, is Youth. (fig. 3) The child has now grown into a youth who is on the verge of

manhood.9 Here Cole has painted a more vast and lush landscape filled with lofty trees, towering moun-tains, and luxuriant flora. The youth shows his eager-ness to further his journey down the Stream of Life by taking control of the boat, thus taking control of his path in life. He gestures towards the heavens, where amongst the clouds floats, as Cole described it, “a cloudy pile of Architecture, an air-built Castle.”10 The boy’s reaching gesture strongly resembles the man in J.M.W. Turner’s engraving, The Last Man (fig. 4). It is possible that Cole used this engraving for a figure study for the youth’s posture. Though it’s style recalls Etienne-Louis Boullee’s design for the Cenotaph of Newton (fig. 5), the floating architecture is not sup-posed to represent a particular building. Rather, the floating architectural palace, flanked by “eternal flames and welcoming angels,”11 is symbolic of the youth’s dreams and aspirations of glory and fame.

As the youth eagerly grabs hold of the tiller of the boat, ready to launch off from the bank of the stream, his Guardian Angel waves him goodbye, as if wishing the youth God speed on his now solitary voy-age. Though the Angel wishes the boy a safe journey, every youth must still learn that life does not always go as planned. With his naïve enthusiasm and hope-ful perception of the world, the youth has become oblivious to the perils he will have to face. His inevita-Figure 5. Etienne-Louis Boullee. Cenotaph of Newton. 1784. Design. From:

http://www.rhizomes.net/issue6/armand2.htm (accessed December 5, 2012)

Figure 4. J.M.W. Turner, The Last Man, 1837. Steel engraving. Published in a new illustrated edition of The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell. From: Ellwood C. Parry III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark: University of Delaware, 1988.

ble hardships in life are symbolized by the sharp turn the stream takes. This can been seen just through an opening in the trees behind the Guardian Angel. The rapid current flows into a rocky ravine, which is the setting of the next stage in the youth’s life.

In Manhood (fig. 6), the third painting in the series, there is a dramatic shift in the once beautiful and picturesque landscape. Cole now uses sublime elements such as a rugged and dreary landscape, furiously rough waters, and a large storm looming overhead. The only plant life found in this painting are a few destroyed and rotting trees. Cole’s third scene stands out in stark contrast with its deeply enhanced sense of impending visual imagery. The youth has grown into a middle-aged man and is now in the midst of facing the perils of life that he so easily overlooked in Youth. Manhood clearly “marks an abrupt division separating childish happiness and early hope from mature despair.”12 The boat’s tiller has broken off, making both the boat and the man a helpless victim of the turbulent stream. Through this rough and uncer-tain journey the man has come to realize the harsh reality of life. Cole, and his patron, Ward intended this painting to teach a harsh but realistic lesson in life. Cole believed, “It is only when experience has taught us the realities of the world, that we lift from our eyes the golden veil of early life.”13

Another aspect of Manhood is Cole’s display of his and his late patron, Samuel Ward’s, religious beliefs. The man, showing Cole’s seriousness about devout faith, prays to be saved from his tumultuous

life while looking up once again towards the heavens. Looking upwards, there are the demon forms of Sui-cide, Intemperance, and Murder hovering amongst the storm clouds. These demons are tempting the man towards a life of destruction and despair. At first, the sky appears to be ruled by these dark forces but another form also resides within it. The man’s Guard-ian Angel sits calmly in the upper left corner of the painting, radiating in a golden glow. The Angel has remained an ever-watchful presence throughout the man’s life. The man has been dependent on his faith and this faith is what saves him from the impending

Figure 6. Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1840. Oil on canvas, 52 x 78 in. The National Gallery, Washington, D.C. From: Earl A. Powell. Thomas

Cole. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990.

Figure 7. Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Old Age, 1840. Oil on canvas, 51 ¾ x 78 ¼ in. The National Gallery, Washington, D.C. From: Earl A.

Powell. Thomas Cole. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990. Scholarship

Opposite Page | Student Photo Submission | Erin Spencer ‘14

Endnotes

1Christine T. Robinson, “Nature and God: The Meaning of the American Wilderness,” in Thomas Cole: Drawn to Nature, collec-tion by Albany Institute of History and Art (Albany, New York: Al-bany Institute of History and Art, 1993), 77. 2Earl A. Powell, Thomas Cole (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990), 84. 3Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1988), 228. 4Parry III, 227. 5Parry III, 218. 6Powell, 23. 7Parry III, 236. 8Parry III, 240. 9Powell, 89. 10Powell, 89. 11Parry III, 241. 12Parry III, 255. 13Powell, 92.

Bibliography 1. Parry III, Ellwood C. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. New-ark: University of Delaware Press, 1988. 2. Powell, Earl A. Thomas Cole. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1990. Robinson, Christine T. “Nature and God: The Meaning of the American Wilder-ness.” In Thomas Cole: Drawn to Nature, collection by Albany Institute of History & Art, 76-79. Albany, New York: Albany Art Institute of History & Art, 1993.

3. Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into His-tory. Washington, D.C.: Yale University Press, 1994.

despair and ruin suggested by Cole’s expressive landscape. Past the raging waters and ragged cliffs, Cole gives the visual of the distant ocean to transition from such an energetic scene to a calmer one. The last painting of the series, Old Age (fig. 7), was completed in 1840. In this painting the man has reached the final stage of his life. Cole has once again changed the landscape in order to convey the right visual effect intended for this scene. The Stream of Life has fed into its final destination, The Ocean of Eternity. Here, dim lighting and the vastness of the Ocean heighten the sense of mystery and eternity. The man has grown old and weary but he has suc-cessfully survived the trials he was presented with throughout his life. His boat, battered by many storms, has lost its figurehead of Hours. This detail suggests, “The time is up.” This man’s mortal life is now over as his boat floats past the remaining rocky shores of the world. But just as his mortal life ends, his immortal life begins. The Guardian Angel de-scends from her watchful perch in Heaven to guide this man from the final moments of his life into eternal salvation. The Angel once again has her left hand placed just above the man’s head just like she did in Youth. It is a calming gesture, one that seems to sym-bolize comfort. The man, now fully aware of his Guardian’s presence, is struck by the wonderful scene that has just been revealed to him. Through the clouds, a patch of golden light baths the man, the boat, and the Angel in celestial brilliance. Several other angels descend down from Heaven to welcome this man into eternity. The overall mood of this paint-ing is a joyful one that suggests by having faith in God, no matter how terrible the perils, life will always end in happiness. The hopeful conclusion of The Voy-age of Life is much different from the barren Desola-tion at the end of the Course of Empire (fig.1). By ending the series with such a peaceful scene, Cole kept true to his patron’s desire that these paintings should embody how life is a series of transitory states and if these states adhere to proper moral and reli-gious life, then an individual can be lead into eternal salvation granted from God. The Voyage of Life was a great success and was generally well received by critics. It was not only a beautiful, poetic, and imaginative work of art, but also a work that symbolized the widely accepted reli-gious beliefs of the time. In fact, the United States of America in the mid 1800s was going through a reli-gious revival known as “The Second Awakening.” Through a transitory and picturesque display of these four paintings, Cole has successfully portrayed both the moral and religious experience of life that he and his patron, Samuel Ward, shared. It is quite apparent that these transformative paintings capture this era as well as a general understanding of our ever-changing

passages through our mortal lives. Cole captures an absolute truth along with various concentrated and detailed moods as he visually describes the journey of a man’s life from beginning to end. As I analyzed Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life series, I was im-mediately aware of his elaborate and detailed “story-board” that described the stages in human life. How-ever, it was when I further examined Cole’s expres-sion of emotional depth that I experienced an inspira-tional understanding of the beauty and passion that each lifetime encompasses.

Not pictured: Abigail Howarth David Jordan

Gra

duating S

enio

rs

Art and Art History Majors

Chelsea Bell Chelsea Bracci Shani Brown

Nina Cavazos Rachel Dunn

Marika Carradine

Kennis Forte Jarrett Ley

Jennifer Maudru Grace Rago Courtney Raterman

Michelle Repper

Art History Focus

G

raduatin

g S

enio

rs

Art & Art History Minors

Not pictured: Kathleen Komornik

Art and Art History Majors Studio Art Focus

Najou Benothmane Brittany Cook Reland Happel Daniel Meade

Barbara Pearsall Kourtenay Plummer

Heidi Scanlon

Julia Sobieraj

Gabriella Smith

Cherie Spataro Calvin Thomas

Aaron Barksdale Travis Carr

Rachel Colby Genevieve Franco

Tilghman Goldsborough Melissa Jarmas

Becca Schall Jessica Stack

Glynnis Stevenson Jean Tang Iren Tete

Emilia Williams

Back Cover | Richard Serra, Photography, Pascal Perich

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ACROPOLIS, Fall 2013