The Big Five 2001

Curator: LeRoy Neiman's "The Big Five," an acrylic-on-canvas piece from 2001, attempts to capture the majesty and endangerment of African wildlife. Editor: Wow, talk about vibrant. It feels less like looking at animals and more like diving headfirst into a rainbow kaleidoscope that's also a jungle. I love the energy. Curator: Neiman's work, situated within contemporary painting, pulls from a Fauvist tradition. We see a bold, almost unrealistic use of color to convey movement and emotion, which in turn comments on our fraught relationship to nature and conservation efforts in postcolonial Africa. Editor: Fraught is the word! All those vivid purples and greens, it's like the animals are vibrating with both power and, yeah, this undercurrent of…anxiety? It makes me wonder about the romanticization of safaris and the shadow they cast. Curator: Precisely. Neiman straddles a complex line, his energetic brushstrokes reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism highlight the tension between observing and impacting these vulnerable species and ecosystems. We must remember that this was made at the turn of the millennium, which brings its own sense of end-times reflection. Editor: I get it. End of a century, end of…something wild, maybe? And that impasto! You can practically feel the heat radiating off the canvas, like you're standing in the savanna yourself. I think a part of its realism, its 'realism' anyway, comes from that very visceral technique. Curator: Considering its depiction of the "Big Five" as both subjects of artistic admiration and symbols of ecological crisis invites discourse between colonial legacies and current conservation policies. Editor: All these layers - the sheer visual energy mixed with this deep sense of… what did you call it, "fraught-ness"? It really does make you think. Curator: It certainly does. Art, after all, is often about questioning our place in the world, and Neiman's "The Big Five" urges us to critically consider our relationship with nature and its creatures. Editor: It’s one of those pieces that burrows into your brain, humming with colour and… Yeah. Fraught-ness. Definitely leaving me thinking.