On Art and Life

I've really enjoyed the unfolding drama of Crawford, Texas, so far this month. Of president Bush vacationing on his "ranch", Cindy Sheehan working to gain an audience with him.

Yesterday showed signs of growing tensions as manifested by a local rancher practicing his bird hunting by firing his shotgun into the air at imaginary doves across the road from Sheehan's "Camp Casey". It makes for intriguing human interest stories. The president vowing to "stay the course" in Iraq; Sheehan determined to stay the course in a roadside ditch. Hopefully, no harm will come to anyone, and the vacation--vigil will conclude peacefully.

("Liberty Leading the People," by Eugene Delacroix. Sadly, a painting former Attorney General John Ashcroft will never see. Half clothed women such as "Liberty" and "Justice" are far too scary for him to view.)

So, in a totally unrelated and somewhat irrelevant vein, I thought it might be nice to take a break from the Crawford theatre for a little art appreciation. My choice today is that of "Liberty Leading the People," a painting by Eugene Delacroix representing the 1830 uprising that overthrew France's Bourbon king.

Liberty depicts an allegorical force leading the people in revolt against Charles X who feasted outside the city as his soldiers were dying in the streets of Paris. The uprising was a reaction to a king who "had alienated natural supporters as well as radicals with his ultra-conservative policies." (See Jonathan Jones excellent "Cry Freedom" in the Guardian for a great discussion on the dramatic elements of this classic artwork.)

(NOTE: Any resemblence of Charles X's reign to that of George W. Bush's is strictly coincidental.)

Liberty is not just a woman, she is the archetypal abstraction that brings sudden change when growing corruption of power and control becomes an intolerable weight upon the human spirit. Delacroix's work is what Argan, the Italian art historian, called the first political work of modern painting.

But enough art for today. Let me go catch up on events unfolding around Cindy Sheehan and president Bush in Crawford. ~ Dada

(NOTE: Dada posits if Delacroix were alive to paint this today, "Liberty" would be running the opposite direction, trying to escape. It would be titled, "Liberty Fleeing the People".)