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The inspiration for many artists in approaching new works comes from those scenes they know or are most intimately familiar with. For example, the Surrealist artist Salvador Dali often used the cliffs of his beloved Catalan Coast in his paintings, including his most famous painting “Persistence of Memory.” This was not only because they were one of his favorite landscape features from his childhood, but also because these cliffs were a tool for him to represent the duality of meaning he wanted to include in his artwork. Artistic efforts often provide useful tools for the study and understanding of complicated concepts in a variety of fields. In presenting an image of a given time period, artists are able to provide a ‘snapshot’, so to speak, regarding the culture and ideas in which they lived whether the image is that of a landscape, portraiture or other form of image-making. In cases in which the artists choose to provide visual images in which the forms and figures are recognizable, future generations are able to get a sense of how these people lived by examining shifts in depictions, deliberate misrepresentation and so forth that provide clues as to the underlying social structures. By looking at some of the landscapes that have dominated our vision of the American landscape, it is possible to identify an overarching ideology of America as a wildland rich with possibility and ready for conquest by the Anglo-Saxon people.
The effects and aftereffects of colonialism have been a subject of great consideration on the academic front for a long time and have recently, within the past few decades, become the focus of a number of postmodern artworks and artists. “Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another” (Kohn, 2006). Strictly speaking, the concept of colonialism applies only to the action of transferring people from a dominant territory to a new territory with permanent intentions in mind. This wide-spread and permanent relocation effort is typically also characterized by an expectation that the transferred people would strive to establish a new home rule over the new territory. This means that the settlers would be expected to continue to adhere to their former styles of dress, modes of behavior and observance of cultural standards rather than attempt to learn from or blend in with the people already living in the area. It was also expected that these settlers, these explorers into the wild, would make every effort to convince the local people to change their ‘heathen’ or ‘uncivilized’ ways in order to come into a more equitable compliance with the colonizing culture’s ideals. While this was considered justifiable action because of the vast differences in technologies and governmental systems, it was perhaps unavoidable. The practice of colonization was seen as important because “a temporary period of political dependence or tutelage was necessary in order for ‘uncivilized’ societies to advance to the point where they were capable of sustaining liberal institutions and self-government” (Kohn, 2006). As the world engaged more and more readily in the process of colonialism, this ‘temporary’ arrangement became much more settled. “In the nineteenth century, the tension between liberal thought and colonial practice became particularly acute, as dominion of Europe over the rest of the world reached its zenith” (Kohn, 2006). These same processes were in action as European culture began claiming the ‘new’ territories found on the North American continent as their own. These ideas can be found in the landscape art of American masters such as Thomas Cole, Edward Hicks and Frederic Church whether they intended these ideas or not.
Thomas Cole is today known as the founder of the Hudson River School of art, which was a particular approach to painting that focused on providing a realistic and detailed look at the American landscape at that time in history. Artists following Cole’s example concentrated on portraying both the tamed landscape of settlements and the untamed wild places that were then still close. Regardless of their intentions as artists, though, each of these painters necessarily communicated deeply held ideals that supported their dominance in the world. This is because most of the communication that takes place in the art world occurs as a result of the process of semiotics. Generally defined, the term ‘semiotics’ is used to describe the process in which one analyzes the ‘signs’ of a given culture for suggestions of what it means at varying levels of understanding. “Semiology therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification” (Barthes, 1964). Some of the primary elements used in images, whether painted, photographed or designed, include the triple threat of signifier, signified and sign. Essentially, the signifier can be thought of as “the form which the sign takes” while the signified is “the concept it represents” and the sign is the overall impression (Chandler, 2006). Cole’s effectiveness was brought about as a result of his ability to blend romanticized ideas of the country with a natural realism as can be seen in his painting “The Oxbow” or “View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm.”
The direction of the action in this oil painting is significant because Westerners are taught to ‘read’ things from the left to the right. Approached this way, the dark storm clouds seen on the left side of the canvas over an untamed area of wilderness is seen to be somewhat threatening to the small community snugly settled in the golden river valley pictured on the right. The gentle curve of the oxbow in the river helps to draw the eye to the center and back up to the wilderness at a leisurely pace while a tiny self-portrait of the artist at his easel, the top of which serves as a sort of tiny arrow pointing directly at the fields below, again encourages movement and seemingly random circular wandering. All this detail works to suggest to the viewer that the storm has already passed the town and civilization has prevailed. At the same time that the line and rhythm of the piece suggest idyllic pastoral imaginings, Cole establishes a struggle occurring between the cultured land of the valley and the wilderness lands of the hill. The valley is bathed with a soft golden light as if highlighting the realization that he is living in a golden age of civilization. By contrast, the wild hill is sharply cut off from the valley. It is thickly covered with dark, pointing evergreen trees and clumps of bushes so tight no land can actually be seen, suggesting the state of the country prior to the taming hand of the white man.
With his strong focus on animals in his painting “The Peaceable Kingdom,” Edward Hicks also is not immediately seen as a landscape painter reinforcing the ideals of colonialism, but a closer look reveals many of the same underlying ideals. The lion, as king of the beasts, is seen to sit at the center of a ring of animals, human children and perhaps angels as the creatures of the world learn to coexist with each other, but again there is a distinct separation between the acceptable society and those who are not so acceptable. To begin with, the creatures and people depicted in the ideal society are physically separated from the rest of the world by a dark chasm. Everyone on the preferred side of this chasm is clearly Anglo-European while those on the other side are carefully not identifiable other than the fact that they are dressed in courtly clothing. They are, however, so far away on the other side of the gulf that it is unlikely they will ever find their way across. In this painting, as in Cole’s painting, the concept that white people are naturally among the chosen preferred is made clear as is the suggestion that it is up to the white people to bring enlightenment to the savages or unbelievers.
These ideas are less clear in Frederic Church’s painting “Niagara Falls” which depicts a scene dominated by the two major falls of the famous landmark. In this painting, the glory and majesty of nature is brought into full focus including the churning waters below and the clouds of mist created by the thundering waterfalls. However, even here Church is able to convey a sense that this splendor is intended for the viewer’s enjoyment rather than simply to exist as he includes small details, such as the ray of sunlight that falls on a green patch of land in the foreground of the image and the Christian promise of the rainbow evident in the bottom right-hand corner.
Through these types of portrayals, landscape painters are able to convey a sense of America as a land promised and delivered to the Anglo-European settlers who wished to tame it. Whether the artists intended these interpretations or not, the semiotics of what they represented manage to convey the idea that only under the influence of the white man can the landscape be put to its proper use leading to a perfect co-existence of everyone living in their proper places. The promise of the land is emphasized over and over again as is the ability of society and civilization to overcome the evils of the old world or the world of the savage.
Works Cited
Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964.
Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. Wales: The University of Wales, 2006.
Kohn, Margaret. “Colonialism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. University of Stanford. (2006). Web.
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