Moby Dick 

Curator: LeRoy Neiman's "Moby Dick", presents us with a fascinating take on the classic tale. It seems to employ acrylic on canvas. Editor: Whoa, intense! That’s what I call a sea monster! It just roars off the canvas with this furious energy, and the tiny boat against the whale makes me feel really small and vulnerable. Curator: It is interesting how Neiman emphasizes this dramatic contrast of scale. We might also consider the expressive paint application itself; look at the materiality of these thick strokes conveying raw power, the act of painting mimicking the whale’s force. Editor: Exactly! You can almost smell the salt spray and hear the creak of the boat. It’s so tactile. It looks almost performative as if he were wrestling the image onto the canvas. And it reminds you how much human endeavor, like whaling, boils down to raw, physical labor. Curator: Indeed. Neiman was very interested in the spectacle of physical culture. Now the context gets more interesting if we consider printmaking, too. The availability of mass reproduction certainly changes access to, and also our idea of an artwork’s value. Editor: Hmmm, you are spot on about access; seeing it online isn't the same as standing before this wildness in person! Curator: And so that returns us, almost full circle, to the physical and the process-based element. Editor: Yeah! It sort of makes you wonder what Melville himself would have thought. I reckon he might’ve raised an eyebrow and then grinned. Curator: A fitting reflection, considering how this piece merges material expression with the timeless drama of the sea. Editor: Definitely makes me want to reread Moby Dick, and this time, maybe I’ll pay more attention to the texture of the rope and the wood of the Pequod!