Isle Of The Dead/After Bocklin #1
Terry Brewer (Santa Fe, NM)
Oil on Canvas, 18 H x 24” W x 1.75” D
Artwork:
The intention behind modifying Bocklin’s mysterious, metaphorical, desolate island, trees and figures, is to express how we’re doing it all wrong by sacrificing young men and women and the environment on the altar of corporate interests.
Artist Statement:
This series is based on the paintings titled Isle of the Dead by Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Bocklin produced in the late 19th century. Prints of these were reportedly very popular in early 20th century Central Europe and common in homes at the time. When I (re)discovered these as an adult, I noticed how they reminded me of prints I saw as a child hung on the walls of my Grandmother’s house who came of age in that period. I can’t say for sure if she had one of them but they seem hauntingly familiar.
Not long after the Iran war started this year, Iran’s strategic Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf was heavily bombarded by the U.S. and threatened with seizure. Ninety percent of Iran’s oil exports pass through the terminal there.