Where Did All That Life Go 2020

Bo Bartlett painted “Where Did All That Life Go” with oils on linen, and I can only imagine what it might have been like to come up with such a strange, evocative image. It’s a little gruesome, and also peaceful, don’t you think? I wonder what Bartlett was thinking when he made it. The pink sky looks almost like the inside of something, maybe a womb or a coffin, or just the afterglow of the day. The shark is grey and solid, laying on that rickety wooden table like it's waiting to be filleted. I’m struck by the contrast between the dead stillness of the shark and the bright energy of the natural world around it, which creates a push and pull of life and death. The painting really makes you wonder about the fragility of existence and the mystery of what happens when life fades away. Like Chaim Soutine's carcasses, or Gerhard Richter's portraits, Bartlett uses paint to ask fundamental questions.