Ideas and Forms in Art: Stories on Love, War & Industry, and Women: A Gould Center Passion Project

The Swing

The fluffy billowing pastel dress of the young women catches my eye first. Her lifted leg creates a line that leads me to her shoe, which is being cast into the air. To the left, the light slightly illuminates a man among the bushes. His gaze is wide and looks to be admiring the woman. In 1767, I imagine it was quite scandalous for a man to be looking up a women’s dress. There is another man, in the shadows, holding the rope to the swing. I’m not sure if I think that’s an older suitor or a house servant. The background is a picturesque garden with overgrown plants and whimsical trees. There are also two different cherub statues. I don’t remember what they represent, but they remind me of little baby cupids, spreading the air with love. Pre-revolutionary France seems to be a dream. 



So, how does this late eighteenth century French piece connect with a British born Nigerian artist three centuries later?¹ Yinka Shonibare shared his opinion by creating The Swing (after Fragonard). 
In a Khan Academy article, Shonibare incorporated cultural symbols to comment on the condition of the wealthy that lead to events such as the French Revolution. The material he used for the dress has a history of being exchanged in African markets although was produced by the Dutch, which outsourced from its colonies. The connection of the fabric to imperialism is part of what Shonibare explored. The combination of these fabrics and the Rococo painting in Shonibare’s work narrowed in on the issue of leisure, a sign of class divisions. In the article, Shonibare is quoted: 

While the leisure pursuit might look frivolous (…) my depiction of it is a way of engaging in that power. It is actually an expression of something much more profoundly serious insofar as the accumulation of wealth and power that is personified in leisure was no doubt a product of exploiting people. (Young)

This is the reality behind the fairytale setting of The Swing. I have to recognize that while love is put on display like that, it is not realistic. Often, a setting and story like The Swing is reserved for the privileged few, at least it was a few in the eighteenth century. The type of love romanticized is not without fault in a sense. Shonibare’s commentary hasn’t become any less relevant today. How much time do you get to have on your hands? Who has provided it for you? And lastly, what are you doing with it?


¹ Young, Allision. “Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard) (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 2014, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-contemporary-apah/21st-century-apah/a/yinka-shonibare-the-swing-after-fragonard.
 

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