Achilles and Patroclus 2008

Editor: This is "Achilles and Patroclus" by Kent Monkman, painted in 2008 using oil paints. At first glance, the figures seem oddly placed within a romantic landscape, a striking contrast to the aftermath of violence portrayed with the fallen soldiers. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Intriguing. Monkman masterfully juxtaposes elements. Notice how the luminosity emanating from the center foreground bathes the scene, drawing the eye past the discarded uniforms towards the figures themselves. The figures, too, echo formal contrasts through both subtle modeling and sharp linework. Observe the chromatic relations at play, especially the verdant foreground meeting an azure backdrop which yields an interplay between nature's raw beauty and something... else. Editor: Else? You mean beyond the idealized landscape? Curator: Precisely. Consider the surface itself. Monkman has not chosen to render his chosen natural landscape entirely realistically, there is a dreamlike quality which could allow many possible semiotic associations with prior artworks: a classical sensibility meeting a plein-air practice. Does it propose the figures' immunity or remove to this reality? The placement and texture become critical, almost defying gravity itself, do they not? Editor: That's fascinating. The contrast really elevates it, and that tension with those grounded uniforms is quite something! I hadn't noticed the subtleties in the composition before. Curator: It highlights the intrinsic complexities of image construction: surface, line, tone; how meaning itself can emerge from their strategic arrangement alone. Editor: So it's like the artwork's structure creates the meaning itself! I am so glad to think about art this way. Thanks for showing me more with my looking.