Introduction
For this assignment the chosen work of art is the piece Confrontation created by Spencer Fidler in 1993. This particular piece of art combines both the artistic and modern in its creation since Fidler utilized 6 burnished zinc plates along with the cooperation of a local printing group in order to create a large scale representation of his work embedded into 3 plates each. While line etching as a form of art has been around for quite sometime the distinctive style utilized by Spencer in this instance is unique in that the personally identifiable details of the subjects involved are omitted (i.e. face, body details etc.) except for the character in the middle which appears to be the focal point of the piece itself.
Description of Confrontation
From the point of view of an observer the painting is an experience in contrasts with the left most side showing two characters in black with a distinctly red backdrop while the right hand side shows a single character colored in red being placed under a white backdrop. A cursory glance can immediately inform a casual observer that the painting is meant to represent a scene of violence where the character on the right hand side represents a male character gripping the distinctly female characters on the left hand side.
The pose of the female character in the middle denotes a certain degree of pain and the “silent scream” effect often utilized by abstract artists when trying to represent a scene where pain is apparently denoted. In fact Fidler follows the exact same formula in denoting this particular effect as seen in other artistic works by having the head tilt backwards towards the right with the nose facing up. This particular similarity to other abstract artists may in fact be evidence of a certain degree of influence some abstract artistic works have had in the creations of Fidler.
Interpreting the Painting
While one obvious interpretation of the piece is to consider it a representation of violence being inflicted on a woman by a man another interpretation of this particular work can be that the female characters on the left represent lesbians while the man on the right is symbolic of society at the present which constrains, limits and inflicts psychological harm on individuals expressing a different form of sexuality.
One method of justifying this particular view is the fact that if Fidler merely wanted to create a representation of men inflicting violence against women then he wouldn’t have included the third figure in the piece and instead would have let it be composed of only two characters. While people may argue that the character in the far left could be a man a closer look at the painting reveals that the distinctly feminine shape of the hips on the left contrast with the distinctly manly hips on the right which justifies the observation that one represents a man and the other a woman.
Further more, the contrasting colors between the two namely dark red and black on the left and light red and white on the right can actually be considered symbolic of the way in which society views its thoughts on lesbians as being right (as symbolized by the color white and light red) while lesbianism itself is considered wrong (by using black and dark red).
It must also be noted that the emphasis on detail in the middle figure was probably utilized in order to place emphasis on the feminine aspect of the characters on the left and to drive the point that the characters on the left are female. The title Confrontation should also be taken into consideration since at times society literally confronts the ideals that lesbian community holds and tortures (figuratively) them through derision, mockery and the implied notion that the sort of love they express is not natural in the least.