Assignment 3, Feedback Reflection and Reworked Essay

Reflection on feedback

Discussing this assignment with my tutor has been reassuring and confidence building. I am pleased with the positive feedback I received in regards to my analysis of Monet’s painting, and feel that my tutors' advice in the essay’s construction has proved invaluable. After talking through the essay, I realised that my writing reflected my anxiety in concerns about the word count and trying to fill the brief.

Having re-worked the essay to reflect my tutors' annotations, I think I have been able to be clear about my intentions in the essay and restructured it in a more defined way. I’m still unsure as to whether I’ve really achieved the level of articulacy that i was aiming for, but i think ive definitely improved in my writing skills as my tutor also stated.

I am getting more familiar with referencing and including quotations in my work, which i will aim to include in my next essays as they are being constructed.

Otherwise, I'm happy to have completed the third assignment and I am progressing through the next stages of the course and I’m optimistic that my circumstances will allow me to complete my fourth assignment within the deadlines.

Assignment 3: Re-appropriating Images

By Luna Bridges

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lillies Show Me The Monet

Monet, 1866 Banksy, 2005

For this essay, I have chosen to look at the subject of re-appropriated images with the example of an artwork from the famous (but anonymous) graffiti artist, known as Banksy. The piece I’ve chosen is from a series called ‘Crude Oil’, entitled Show Me The Monet. From the title alone it’s obviously an artwork appropriated from the 19th century French artist Claude Monet, but more specifically it is one of his most well-known works: Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies.

The original work, dated 1899, has been the subject of analysis from audiences ranging from children in early years education to various professional art critiques. However, as I am comparing it to its re-appropriated counterpart, I’m going to provide a semiotic analysis of each artwork by discussing the denotations and the connotations of the paintings. This enables me to gain insight and understand the context of each work, which also allows me to truly compare the two.

Looking at the original, I am familiar with the classic impressionist style that the artist is well known for. With short brush strokes and dots of paint, it's recognisable as a painting by Monet. The first thing most of us notice is the simple bridge, over a pond brimming with clusters of brightly coloured water lilies. The water is represented by the repeated paint strokes from the trees to simulate a reflection in the water. The central features are framed with thick greenery and flora, creating a rich contrast to the oranges and reds on the delicate water lilies, bringing them more into focus. Similarly, the red curve towards the bottom of the painting gives the impression of a shadow underneath the bridge, creating more of a relationship between the bridge and its surroundings as well as emphasising the water’s reflections. The painting is orientated vertically as opposed to a typical landscape painting, giving more room for the artist to create the perspective of length as we are drawn into the centre as though looking through and under the bridge into the distance, “there is a palpable tension between the illusions both of recession into depth and of the reflective, translucent quality of the water,” (Jane R. Becker 2015).

Monet has created a scene of tranquility and peace, combining the natural world and that which it surrounds; a man-made structure. It's a harmonious relationship between humans and nature, the perspective and the bridge itself invites the audiences to go into that environment and experience the beauty of the scene themselves. Personally, I explored the piece as though Monet is sharing with us a moment of contentment and capturing the essence of that as a moment in time in this one painting.

This piece is one in a series of at least a hundred works that Monet produced, with his garden in Giverny as his muse. It is clear that this painting could be considered celebratory of his passions for horticulture and Japanese culture:

“While Monet never visited Japan, he learned of its culture through its art and believed, as did many Europeans of the time, that Japanese culture was artistic and that Japanese people had refined artistic tastes” (Spate and Bromfield 2001,p.4, cited by Becker, 2015).

This natural beauty of the scene in Claude Monet’s work is in stark contrast to its reappropriated counterpart, ‘Show Me the Monet’ by Banksy, 2005.

Studying the reappropriated version, this anonymous artist has reproduced the work of Monet rather than taking an identical copy, using oil on canvas as the original artist used. The scene created in this work is one of pollution and disruption to nature. The Japanese bridge is smothered with moss and surrounded by plant overgrowth that is reminiscent of neglect, providing a green contrast for the unsettling fluorescent oranges on the traffic cone and shopping trolleys. The modern day items that have been unceremoniously left in a natural beauty spot are not an uncommon view in today’s world, and would scarcely be considered art until Banksy had incorporated the images into a landscape. It's obvious that this is representative of the very real pollution that threatens the natural world today. The shopping trolleys themselves are symbolic of today’s consumerism and how society disposes of its surplus produce with complete disregard for the environment. However, viewers may be quick to blame the fly-tippers instead of understanding that the artist is questioning the need for mass production and commercialization of unnecessary products. Alongside this, the traffic cone could be symbolic of the damage caused by modern day transport and, on a deeper level, why any of modern day conveniences are manufactured in the first place.

There are many layers to it’s interpretation, but what is most readable is the act of vandalism, echoing many responses to the artist’s previous works with graffiti. Being well-known for artworks that express their political views, this particular work is demonstrating the artist’s out-raged opinion on who is really at fault for the climate crisis as they themselves stated “The real damage done to our environment is not done by graffiti writers and drunken teenagers, but by big business,” (Helen Holmes, 2020 cites Banksy, 2005). Unfortunately, the artist’s protest seems lost among the irony as it sold for over twelve million pounds to a private collector in 2020.

In comparing the two, Banksy’s version has created a new narrative. Particularly by building on the original’s focal point by adding the contemporary items. Much like the Japanese style bridge of the original, we are looking at man made objects in the setting of a natural world only with Banksy's version it's more of an invasion rather than a relationship. Monet’s garden was manufactured in a sense, in that the land was bought and reconstructed to suit the artist’s taste. Banksy may have built on that by depicting the area as having been interfered with by humans in a progressively extreme way.

It seems that Banksy also used Monet’s work to convey their frustration towards commercially produced artwork on an excessive scale. Monet’s work is currently on exhibit in The Met, New York and has been reproduced for merchandise ranging from mouse-mats, postcards and even ‘paint by numbers’ kits. Much like Banksy’s own work, the original’s beauty and intent is somewhat lost in its consumption . This could also be why Banksy chose to hand paint their version of the original rather than use technology to recreate it, eradicating a modern day shortcut.

In conclusion, when I initially began to understand the concept of re appropriated art, I had invested in images of propaganda, collages, posters and protest boards. When it comes to this example, it’s fair to say that there is no set format for reusing images to create completely new context. Both works are in honour of the earth’s natural beauty and both are aimed at preserving the ecological balance. However, the original’s intention was to encapsulate the artist’s joy with expression of life and colour.. Through the appropriation of it, Banksy has reminded us of how society was satisfied with the simplicity of nature before consumerism and greed took hold and threatened to destroy it.

Word Count: 1188

References

Grant Pooke & Diane Newall, 2008, ‘Art History, The Basics’, Oxon, Routledge

Banksy, 2005, ‘Wall and Piece’, London, Century

s.n., ‘10 Facts You MIght Not Know About Claude Monet’s “Water Lillies”, 2010

https://www.claude-monet.com/waterlilies.jsp accessed 17/02/2021

s.n., ‘Claude Monet, his paintings and influence, 2010’

https://www.claude-monet.com/ accessed 17/02/2021

s.n. , ‘Water Lillies and Japanese Bridge, 1899 - by Claude Monet’

https://www.claude-monet.com/water-lilies-and-japanese-bridge.jsp accessed 17/02/2021

Jane R Becker, 2015, ‘Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lillies, 1899’ - Catalogue Entry

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437127 accessed 17/02/2021