The museum I visited was the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. There were three main exhibitions open, but the one I spent the most time in was the Bill Rutherfoord: Allegory of No Region. The exhibition was a culmination of eleven large scale pieces of art by Bill Rutherfoord that were done over an eight-year period. The main series, Allegory of No Region, contains paintings that take the viewer through a series of colorful allegories full of symbolism, form, and narrative. Rutherfoord, an American artist from Virginia, references contemporary and historical issues spanning from the 18th century to present times by taking the African folk character Brer Rabbit on an epic adventure through time. The exhibition also includes another series of paintings that Rutherfoord made before the Allegory of No Region called the Apocalypse.
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Inspired by the Book of Revelations, the artist explores many themes, such as the duality between abstraction and illustration, by making many international and art historical references.
The painting I chose to write about is called the Pavilion of Perpetual Present by Bill Rutherfoord and is part of the Apocalypse series. This oil on linen work of art is 70 x 74” and was made between 2008 and 2013. Rutherfoord draws inspiration from Winslow Homer’s The Briarwood Pipe and depicts two soldiers sitting in front of pavilion; however, in Rutherfoord’s depiction, one soldier has the head of a goat and the other has the head of a boar. The author uses an abundance of symbols and historical references to display the unpredictability and corruption of society; the title Pavilion of Perpetual Present means a tent of the endless, never changing present. On the left side of the background, you see an ace of spades with a white cat head on it and a pair of dice all symbolizing luck and chance. On the right side of the background, you see the head of a fortune teller symbolizing the future. In the middle of the background, you see political figure John F. Kennedy playing the part of a magician by floating Marilyn Monroe through a large ring symbolizing the government showing us illusions and what they want the people to see. The soldiers with a goat head and boar head symbolize deception and gluttony respectively; the goat soldier has a traditional early civil war uniform while the boar soldier has the same uniform but with altered colors. The soldiers have wooden figures of Abraham Lincoln and Malcom X; along with JFK, these are all political figures who had all died prematurely due to an assassination. On the bottom right of the canvas, there is a wooden dog puppet next to a can of red paint symbolizing the blood shed by loyal Americans soldier whom are easily controlled by the government. The three formal elements of art Rutherfoord used that were most prolific were his use of lines, color, and value. Lines are one of the most crucial elements of art; Rutherfoord uses lines to divide the canvas up and guide the viewers eyes. The use of a horizontal line divides the background and foreground of the canvas; the background is then split into three different planes, separated equally by two vertical lines. The lines align and intersect at the center of the canvas behind the two soldiers, drawing your
Inspired by the Book of Revelations, the artist explores many themes, such as the duality between abstraction and illustration, by making many international and art historical references.
The painting I chose to write about is called the Pavilion of Perpetual Present by Bill Rutherfoord and is part of the Apocalypse series. This oil on linen work of art is 70 x 74” and was made between 2008 and 2013. Rutherfoord draws inspiration from Winslow Homer’s The Briarwood Pipe and depicts two soldiers sitting in front of pavilion; however, in Rutherfoord’s depiction, one soldier has the head of a goat and the other has the head of a boar. The author uses an abundance of symbols and historical references to display the unpredictability and corruption of society; the title Pavilion of Perpetual Present means a tent of the endless, never changing present. On the left side of the background, you see an ace of spades with a white cat head on it and a pair of dice all symbolizing luck and chance. On the right side of the background, you see the head of a fortune teller symbolizing the future. In the middle of the background, you see political figure John F. Kennedy playing the part of a magician by floating Marilyn Monroe through a large ring symbolizing the government showing us illusions and what they want the people to see. The soldiers with a goat head and boar head symbolize deception and gluttony respectively; the goat soldier has a traditional early civil war uniform while the boar soldier has the same uniform but with altered colors. The soldiers have wooden figures of Abraham Lincoln and Malcom X; along with JFK, these are all political figures who had all died prematurely due to an assassination. On the bottom right of the canvas, there is a wooden dog puppet next to a can of red paint symbolizing the blood shed by loyal Americans soldier whom are easily controlled by the government. The three formal elements of art Rutherfoord used that were most prolific were his use of lines, color, and value. Lines are one of the most crucial elements of art; Rutherfoord uses lines to divide the canvas up and guide the viewers eyes. The use of a horizontal line divides the background and foreground of the canvas; the background is then split into three different planes, separated equally by two vertical lines. The lines align and intersect at the center of the canvas behind the two soldiers, drawing your