Art Review: Queer Identity, Nature, and Impressionism

Introduction

The painting Beck (he/him) by Eli depicts a queer and trans subject sitting on a bench. The background of the painting is very impressionistic, with foliage and the park behind the subject defined more by color and shade than by edge or boundary. The blurring of borders in the background, however, reflects the blurring of gender in the subject. The subject is also somewhat impressionistically portrayed—but here there is more focus on edge, with more defined boundaries: the limbs, legs, face, and features can all be discerned.

Beck (he/him): Queer Identity and Visual Ambiguity

What is most interesting about Beck, however, is that he is wearing large sunglasses that cover his eyes and create a mysterious effect on the viewer. The eyes are traditionally considered the gateways to the soul, and here the viewer is unable to gain access to that soul and so must look for meaning in the features of the face, the posture of the body, and the lines of the mouth. The mouth itself is ambiguous: is the subject smiling or grimacing? There is a Mona Lisa quality to the expression in Beck, suggesting that the subject perceives something in the viewer without revealing what it is.

The posture of the subject is similarly ambivalent: one leg is crossed man-style over the other with the foot dangled downward—yet the shoulders are small and feminine, and the cheeks and neck carry a feminine appearance as well. This dubious quality is what gives the artwork its overall mystique. The way Eli uses visual cues of gender to create deliberate uncertainty mirrors broader conversations in queer art about representation and identity.

River Rock, Cathedral by Jay Sousa is a photograph that looks like a painting. Usually it is the painting that confuses the viewer and makes one wonder whether it is a photograph, on account of its realism. Here, Sousa has captured the shimmering, impressionistic nature of a reflection of the surrounding rock wall above the river, as the surface of the water ripples and causes distortion in the image. Only the line of large, oblong rocks looming slightly out of the water has any stillness to it: the water is full of sky and rock reflections, while the actual stones sit like abstract agents in an abstract painting.

Yet this is a photograph of nature—one that immediately captures the viewer's attention and holds it. As Sousa himself says, "In my photography I try to show the viewer something unique; something they may not see from the comfort of their vehicle or roadside pull out." This photograph is certainly unique and demonstrates what is available to the eye when one descends into nature and points the lens at the gifts the natural world has to offer.

River Rock, Cathedral: Photography as Impressionist Painting

Merced River: Impression #1 by Roger J. Wyan is another photograph that looks like it could be an impressionistic painting. It resembles one of Monet's paintings of water lilies—the way the focus rests on the surface of the water and the reflections seen there, while the objects riding the surface contrast with the reflections of the natural world caught in the water's face. It is a brilliant photograph that perfectly encapsulates the beauty of Impressionism, as the title itself suggests.

What is so astounding is that this photograph echoes the Impressionist paintings of Monet so strongly that the two seem cut from the same cloth. How can photography and painting be so inextricably linked by a similar subject? One would expect a photograph to be less impressionistic, more literal—but it is an equal match in impressionistic power to those canvases by Monet. The surface reflection is full of blues from the sky, dotted by reds, oranges, and yellows from the leaves of the trees, while dark branches and trunks lead down to the ground. Wyan notes that he is inspired by the French Impressionists, which explains the similarity a great deal. His ability to capture light and color in the water's surface marks him as a true artist.