The Amazon’s Forbidden Stone Age World 1969

Mort Künstler made this image of ‘The Amazon’s Forbidden Stone Age World’, and the title alone tells us this image is not playing it subtle. The palette is bold, the yellow of the helicopter shouts against the muted tones of the jungle below. The paint is applied with a graphic clarity, that makes no attempt to hide the way the image has been constructed. Look at the figures clinging to the helicopter, the rendering is so precise, you can see the determination in their faces, but their precariousness feels almost comical. The men in the foreground are all gesture and muscle, their bodies are full of tension. It reminds me a little of the work of Max Beckman, a German painter who was working a little earlier in the 20th century. Beckman liked to play with exaggerated forms and perspectives and like Künstler, he was drawn to melodrama and spectacle. Both artists were interested in pushing the boundaries of what painting could do. Painting asks, "What is real anyway?" And how can we know for sure what we think we see?