DO YOU SEE IT NOW? WRITTEN BY CARLY THOMPSON ILLUSTRATION BY ENNE GOLDSTEIN
W
hat do we see when we visit museums? Generally, visits to art exhibits consist of aimlessly wandering around looking and reading plaques and appreciating the aesthetic value of the works. But what does the viewer miss when only looking at the surface level? Art is very symbolic; not everything is as it appears. There are hidden connotations and meanings in almost everything in the art world. Is it possible that when appreciating
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what we first see in a work of art, we miss a racially charged underlayer? With context and awareness of this possible racial aspect of art, we might find that race plays a role in some of our most beloved works. A good place to start is with British painter J. M. W. Turner’s The Slave Ship. It was first exhibited in 1840 and is part of the period of Romanticism. The oil painting is now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. When first
encountering the painting, Turner’s deep sunset captures the viewer, the bleeding red and orange barely pointing to the ship in the left background. The painting is seemingly a chaotic wash of colors and water, turbulence and beauty. But, with closer examination, one starts to pick out body parts among the waves—a leg in the bottom right corner cuffed with a chain, fish and seagulls circling it as if ready for a feast. With some context, the true atrocity
