Bathers, New England 1919

Curator: Maurice Prendergast’s watercolor, "Bathers, New England," created in 1919. It feels very...joyful. Editor: Yes, an effervescent scene, quite vibrant despite the muted palette. The composition feels rather flattened, the figures compressed into this shallow space. Curator: Interesting observation! Prendergast clearly favors patterning and surface decoration here, reducing the human form to basic shapes. Given the watercolor medium and the likely plein-air creation, one has to consider the challenges. I imagine the hand-made quality comes through in its visible brushstrokes. This aesthetic pushes against the industrial age of mechanical reproduction. It feels deliberately, skillfully naive. Editor: Absolutely. Prendergast's art sits comfortably in an early twentieth century art world beginning to embrace the deliberately primitive. These bathing scenes were painted during a period of heightened cultural change in America and the popular imagination. I would add this genre painting aesthetic appealed to wealthy patrons wanting to be reminded of an ideal existence or a less urban, hurried existence. Curator: I see the materiality playing a large role in evoking that sense of an informal scene. It looks as though the water and figures have been treated very similarly, using the wash of the pigment in fluid forms, the texture in his style helps highlight what is the mundane subject for consumption by a wealthy and elite class. Editor: Agreed, and those simplified forms can also read as rather progressive for the time. Curator: Indeed. Well, I find I'm ready to head for the beach myself! It makes me crave a simpler mode of engagement and artistic experience. Editor: Precisely. The power of "Bathers, New England" lies in its ability to tap into universal longing for escape and uncomplicated leisure.