Bathers by John Marin
This piece was in the Coastlines exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art April 25 – August 22, 2010. This painting was part of the modernist movement. In Bathers, you find fragmented forms of women bathing nude on the beach. As quoted by Marin, “I demand of them [paintings] that they are related to experiences. I demand of them that they have the story — embracing these with the all over demand that they have the music of themselves as beautiful — forms — lines — and paint on beautiful paper of canvas.”
I tried to capture the experience of an afternoon at the beach with friends, trying to do something that wasn’t a popular practice, sunbathing in the nude. The rhythm of the piece suggests the feelings and reponses to this environment. The subjects of Marin’s art can be understood in the context of early twentieth-century American culture. You will hear the music of the harp and english horn, trying to define the music and form of the beautiful figures and lines in the painting.
artfulsounds 