 |
| |
 |
|
Disko Bay |
The Romantic Nationalism known as Manifest
Destiny, which swept America in the 19th Century required a symbol of the
new nation's purity and goodness (in contrast to bankrupt Europe).
What better way to symbolize the nation as recipient of God's
favor and beneficence than to depict the marvelous uncorrupted wilderness
landscape, the true "finger of God." It is to this still-vibrant
American tradition that Adam Cvijanovic's ("See-an-o-vich") painting,
Disko Bay, pays homage.
 |
|
Niagra, Frederick Church,
1857, 42" x 92", Corcoran Museum of Art |
|
Like the great paintings of his predecessors (Frederick Church,
Niagara (1857), or Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon (1893) 96" x 168",
Smithsonian Institution), Cvijanovic alludes to the oneness of nature with
God, its power and beauty reinforced by means of scale and distance.
A fiercely uninhabitable seascape of ice mountain and crystalline
blue waters innocent of man's presence, Disko
Bay is a floor-to-ceiling painted mural 52 ft. in length x 11 ft high.
Clearly contemporary in its brushwork and process of facture yet speaking
to an age old American tradition, Cvijanovic's beautiful mural serves to remind
us, especially as we approach the first anniversary of 9/11, that America
is still beloved of God.
|
|
