Poetry and Painting

Wallace Stevens wrote in his essay The Necessary Angel, “That there is a universal poetry, of which literary poetry and painting are manifestations.” In other words, painting and poetry conveys and recreates the “reality” that we live in. Therefore, there is as strong relationship between painting and poetry in which one cannot exist without the other. Today’s contemporary paintings reveal their heavy influence from poetic writings such as the Inferno by Dante.


Poetry is the literary art of rhythmical composition. A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike elements that have something significant in common. Poetry utilizes both symbols and metaphors to bring writing to life. The metaphors used in poems create imagery that evokes emotion within the reader. Sometimes the words and sentences within a poem can seem twisted and complicated but at the same time creates an allegory or moral message.


For many generations “painting” has been misunderstood. The dictionary defines it as a noun, the act of covering a surface with paint. In this sense painting is reduced to a craft. The Renaissance masters never intended the materials they used to be the art, it was the concept or moral message those materials illustrated. Illusions and “depictions of reality” just happen to be included in the work. Today most contemporary artists are no longer concerned with illusions and imagery. We cut the fat and go straight for the concept. However, if art is only “art” as an idea where does that leave painting?


What makes art is the combination of both tradition and a rebellion against it. Contemporary artists who truly understand the language of painting can bridge this paradox. The language of painting is essentially the language of poetry. They both use symbols and metaphors to create unusual and vivid imagery. These arts lay bare the inner structure of our reality. They expose our strengths, faults, and weaknesses.


In the Inferno by Dante, the author writes the whole story in the format of a poem. He twists and uses words that in a way “adds color” to the story and highlights certain tissues that he wants the reader to understand. Through the Inferno Dante conveys a mortal message. Its seems as if he is trying to expose the essence of human nature, which tends to be selfish and crude, and then shows us the consequences for living our lives this way. According to Dante, for every sin that the soul commits on Earth it will receive its proper punishment in Hell. Although punishments are related to the severity of each of their sins, all punishments are extremely harsh.


An example of a contemporary painter who fashions his painting into rhythmic allegories is Martin Wiffooth. Wiffooth attended Sheridan College in Finland 2003. He then continued his education at The School of Visual Arts in New York. Wiffooth graduated and earned his Masters in Illustration in 2008. He now lives and works in New York as a Fine Artist and an Illustrator.


Some of Wittfooth’s themes include industry, evolution, nature, and humans’ struggle to dominate nature. He applies many layers of oil paint to canvas, linen, and wooden panels. Although his work is about people he never depicts a person in any of his paintings. Instead, he uses animals as stand-ins to explain the human condition. His displacement of animals in manmade settings manifest visual narratives. “My work lacks the human figure,” Wittfooth says, “I’m trying essentially to set up a platform that is set by human hands and played out by nature, making us observers, sort of witnesses to this event, rather than participants. We’ve affected the setting in which all this stuff plays out, but we aren’t actively involved, other than within the characterizations of these animals.”


In Wittfooth’s piece Red Soil, 2010, oil on panel, a dead wolf lays on a concrete sidewalk outside of a building. Its fur is stained with blood, some drips over into the street’s drainage vent. Red flowers grow out of the wolf’s wound and “blooms” with the blood. All colors are cool and mute expect for the warm reds and crimsons of the flowers. Perhaps the red flowers are a symbol for human suffering or simply nature’s natural stages or death and re-growth. The content of the piece overall is subtle but intense. Like Dante, Wiffooth reveals the ugliness of human nature.

Wittfooth’s first version of Isle of the Dead, 2010, oil on panel is one of his few paintings where animals are absent from the scene. An abandon trailer home is centered and sitting in a pool of water. The sky is a brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds. The setting seems desert like. There are no plants expect for the ones growing out of the uninhabited home.



There is very little activity in this piece. The sky and pool of water suggest that it has just rained, however, nothings grows from the earth, only from the empty home. It appears to relate to natural’s manifesting in the absence of people. The nonappearance of people is emphasized by the rusty vacant home and the lack of animals that usual represents people in Wittfooth's illustrations.


In his piece Stream, 2011, oil on linen and wolf stands in the foreground of the paintings. Its head is lowered toward the stream it is standing over while a dark liquid drips from its month. Behind the wolf lies a lamb. Its blood streams from its neck. Both characters are in a snowy landscape. Oil towers burn in the distance, adding smoke to the already cloudy sky.


Overall the setting seems quite yet chaotic. There are many ambiguous elements juxtaposing each other. For instance, it unclear whether the liquid in the painting is a stream of water or oil coming from the burning towers in the back. Also, the lamb could have been killed by the wolf or another force, since the liquid dripping from the wolf’s month isn’t exactly red. The liquid could be oil, making the wolf a victim too. What is clear is that the narratives in the painting are symbolic for the damaging effects of oil and industry on our natural world and perhaps even ourselves. Like Dante, Wittfooth reveals the ugliness of human nature.


After analyzing the work of Martin Wittfooth it is evident that painting speaks through a poetic language. Without works like the Inferno, contemporary painters would not have the essentials to make a good piece of art. Painting without poetry would be like trying to make a painting without paint. Artists must understand the rhythmic and symbolic nature of poetry in order to create interesting visual narratives in their paintings.

Bibliographically:
Donate. Dante’s Inferno
Visual Arts Journal: volume 19 number 1, spring 2011
Michael Hancher, http://mh.cla.umn.edu/txtimjj1.html (accessed April 18, 2011)
Martin Wittfooth, http://beinart.org/artists/martin-wittfooth (accessed April 18, 2011)
Martin Wittfooth, http://www.martinwittfooth.com (accessed April 25, 2011)