{"id":6333,"date":"2012-08-13T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T20:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/?page_id=6333"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:34:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T17:34:43","slug":"ship-to-paradise","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/exhibitions\/2013y\/ship-to-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert S. Neuman\u2019s “Ship to Paradise”"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 18 \u2013 March 22, 2013<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nRobert Neuman, Ship to Paradise-Paradise Found<\/em>, 1983,
\nimage courtesy of the Currier Museum of Art<\/h6>\n

Robert S. Neuman\u2019s Ship to Paradise<\/em> is the artist\u2019s personal exploration of a theme that dates back to the Middle Ages \u2013 the folly and foibles of man.\u00a0 Informed by his reflections on the modern day world around him and imbued with a knowledge of seafaring and shipbuilding intrinsic to life in Maine, Neuman\u2019s intricate compositions recall the fantastical paintings of the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516).\u00a0 Images of the ship in various stages of its journey, from construction to calamity to repair, function both as a cautionary tale on the dangers of the quest at hand and as a metaphor for the human condition.<\/p>\n

Neuman began exploring the theme in 1977 in whimsical sketches, prints and mixed-media works.\u00a0 In 1983, August Heckscher, who was a fellow summer resident of Mt. Desert Island and who operated a fine printing press there, commissioned Neuman to execute a portfolio of prints to accompany a fine facsimile edition of the medieval humanist Sebastian Brandt\u2019s Shyp of Fooles<\/em>.\u00a0 Brandt\u2019s text, which dates to 1494, is an allegory outlining in 112 chapters the vices and worldly conceits of man that prevent him from reaching godly salvation in paradise.\u00a0 Translated from German into Latin and then into French, English, Dutch, and Low German, the tale became a best seller, with woodcut illustrations by Brandt\u2019s contemporary Albrecht D\u00fcrer that clearly conveyed Brandt\u2019s message to the literate and illiterate alike.<\/p>\n

Like Brandt\u2019s wayward passengers, Neuman\u2019s ship is ill-equipped for its journey.\u00a0 As described by the printer\u2019s son, Philip Heckscher, the \u201cship is not ship-shape.\u00a0 Its rigging is a-fly, its hull heavily patched, its deck encumbered with what the artist calls \u2018worldly clutter\u2019 . . . Even an amateur sailor can see that this ship isn\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d\u00a0 There is no captain guiding it through the misfortunes it faces \u2013 whether airborne, encumbered by the great rock, or on fire \u2013 and in most of the images, the passengers are nowhere to be seen.\u00a0 For Neuman, as for Brandt, the journey is ultimately a metaphor for the human experience.<\/p>\n

This exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Heckscher Museum, in Huntington, NY and the Sunne Savage Gallery, in Boston, Massachusetts and has received support from Astoria Federal Savings and the Clare Chester Stone Marital Trust. An illustrated catalogue with essays by Philip Heckscher, Carl Little, and John C. Olin accompanies the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\t\t