The Fate of Durable Goods

Through visiting the Nevada Museum of Art, I saw one shocking art in there. When I glanced at it, I first thought that the junk is floating on the sea; however, when I saw it closely, I found that it was not junk but furniture and goods we daily use. The work of art is called Fate of Durable Goods which is painted by Chester Arnold. In the art, the goods such as a couch, car, book, TV, and umbrella which look good conditions are floating on the rough waves under crowd which looks like starting rain. The work of art is inspired by French art called Raft of the Medusa which is painted the survivors who are abandoned by crew on purpose, and they are on the tiny wood boat on middle of rough sea. Some of survivors seem like they are already dead; on the other hand, others look desperate, and they seem like calling or yelling the crew to help them. The discarded goods that Arnold drew seem like same as the people who are abandoned in the French art. When I saw the both of art, I felt like I can hear the durable goods that Arnold drew are calling for help.

Chester Arnold was born in California in 1952, and he grew up in Germany studying with private teachers. Then he attended at the College of Marin, Kentfield, California in 1970, and he was inspired by the German Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Albrecht Altdorfer. Arnold believes the importance of understanding people’s feeling and touch of the individual.  His big and oil painting art work in 19^th century shows how we pollute natural environment with industrialization. In his recent work, he shows his concern about exploitive and explorative nature of humans, and he has strong moral belief about our world and environment, so his art work shows us dark side of humans, and it is related to politics and human’s responsibility.

When I saw his Fate of Durable goods, I had a strong impact, and I felt like he tried to tell us something important through the art. We can see that because we can get anything easily in our society, we tend to throw durable goods away when new goods come out to our society or we do not need them anymore. Through the art work, Arnold might want to tell us that we usually do not appreciate what we have, and his message seems like to consider what we can do and what we need to do for our society.

Sources:

  1. http://tamarind.unm.edu/bios/arnoldbio.html
  2. http://lindahodgesgallery.com/artists/arnold.html
  3. Nevada Museum of Art