PH-77 Reflection
Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was an American painter associated with Abstract Expressionism. The painting I chose to discuss was PH-77, which was painting in 1936 on canvas using oil paint. I tend to not understand the beauty in abstract expressions but the historical context brings this painting to life. The images of these two men in the file working with accentuated features and use of primary colors emulate the feelings of the physically strenuous work of working in the fields. The arms are lengthened and torsos are expanded, as if they are under a magnifying glass, and in a way they are.
The arms of men working the fields represent manual labor during a time when non-manual work's meaning was beginning to shift as a result of the Great Depression. In other words the long battle between work made by man versus that of a machine. The change in America is felt in each stroke of this painting, the style of impressionism to obscure figures really comes through in PH-77, the obscurity and blending of colors remind me of how culture and individuals blend together writing history in colors instead of words.
I think this painter is honoring the two men for their arduous work by using such bright colors. The color he used in this painting appears to be only the primary colors, which is quite an interesting because it may be a commentary on how this form of labor is the most fundamental form of work of man, perhaps alluding to being the most natural. The use of the strong reds was especially telling in that it seemed evident that the utilization of this shade of red represented the common phrase ‘blood sweat and tears’ of exhausted, frail, yet strongly muscular men conveying the complexity of their hardship during this terrible time in American history.
The darker shades of the blue sky made me think about how these difficulties stretched across the globe, with these two men along with many under the same sky feeling the weight of the seemingly hopeless future. I think of this because they are not looking up at all only at the ground completely absorbed in the strenuous work with not much in the painting to suggest anything other than more work. It is as if they are moving closer and closer to defeat, rather than strength, it 's incredible that he can portray two strong men as being so depleted, oppressed and distressed.
When looking at this painting, I feel a sense of such longing for death rather than life, and maybe this is why they are both looking down. In other words, perhaps they are bending over without looking forward not just because they are working so hard to survive during this horrible economic and social crisis but because they are actually just working to dig themselves in the ground. The strokes of the painting also seem to be pointing in this direction and the paint layered so thick further makes one feel the heaviness that these two men must be feeling. The wheat appears so small but symbolically feels to have so much power over these two very muscular men.
I keep retuning to the discussion of colors because that is what I felt made this paining even more powerful, I tried to imagine what it would look like in black and white, and it was like all the human emotion and symbolism left with the colors. I like to look at the colors in a way that I think represents the different aspects of a human and how each component was negatively impacted by the current life circumstances. I see the red for the pain of the physical body, blue shades of emotional and yellow as the symbolism of the psychological impact of the industry of wheat crops at this time, especially for men of color. For an abstract painting, PH-77 looks more like a very real, honestly depicted truth of a very stark time for the majority of those living in America.
