Short Introduction
Following a figurative discourse with a rather traditional character, the pictorial subject of fish primarily appears in three instances: within genre scenes, where it thrives in the context of the market; in still lifes, accompanied by flowers, fruits, etc.; in landscapes. Fish in painting will thus be narrated following the above-presented order, also briefly dwelling on the genres that host the figure of the animal in question. This will also be an opportunity to clarify the subtle differences between still life, genre scene, and landscape, often confused with each other due to the state of the animal, which in all contexts can be either dead or alive. In essence, genre scenes depict moments that recur in our lives, while still lifes emphasize the subjects while disregarding what happens around them, and landscapes involve the animal in a more complex narrative where all natural elements speak in unison.
THE FISH KNOWS EVERYTHING (2023)Painting by Gabriel Cristian Matei
Genre Scenes
What is meant by genre scene? It is a figurative representation that subjects everyday life events, such as parties, markets, domestic moments, and interiors. Yes, you heard correctly, live fish in small tanks painted inside large living spaces are indeed genre scenes, just like the dead specimens sold at the market. In fact, as mentioned above, the genre scene arises from the possibility of placing the animal in a context of real life that can be repeated almost infinitely within our routine. Example: after school, I come home every day, and when I open the front door, I see my desk, my chair, and my shelf with my little goldfish, maybe won at the Luna Park. If, on the other hand, I were to arrange all the objects on my shelf in a special way in order to immortalize them with the fish in a carefully composed scene, then I would change the genre's name to still life. Returning to the genre scene, just to provide a date, it emerged as an expression of Flemish and Dutch painting in the 16th and 17th centuries, a phenomenon later accompanied by the flourishing Italian tradition that developed starting with the work of Vincenzo Campi, Bartolomeo Passerotti, and Annibale Carracci. Now, we provide an example among the most traditional of the genre and the subject in question, namely "Fish Market" (1568) by Joachim Beuckelaer, a Flemish painter born in 1530. Regarding the artwork, we could start by describing it: on the counters of some vendors, lifeless specimens of salmon, cod, carp, pike, and herring appear, faithfully depicted, ready to be purchased as the catch of the day, offered in a market crowded with demanding housewives. The work is highly relevant to the historical and artistic narrative, as one of the early examples of genre scenes that categorically reject religious themes in favor of secular content, aimed at alluding to the actual importance of the fish industry in Flanders. However, the everyday context is imbued with moralistic content, mainly intended to warn against excesses of food and sexual pleasures, which were strongly condemned by the moralists of the time, including the famous Erasmus.
STILL LIFE WITH FISH _5 (2023)Painting by Tigran Avetyan
Still Life
Still life is a pictorial representation traditionally aimed at immortalizing inanimate objects, although over its evolution, it has also featured living specimens, always captured in carefully composed scenes, where animals, fruits, and objects were arranged to captivate the viewer's attention. The first examples of the genre date back to the Hellenistic period, although still life emerged as an independent genre only at the beginning of the 17th century. Now let's move on to examples, referring to one more "common" and others more "surprising." In fact, when we think of a classic still life with fish, Manet's "Eel and Red Mullet" (1864) immediately comes to mind, a masterpiece in which the animals are, as tradition dictates, dead. Courbet's "The Trout" (1873), on the other hand, has just been caught by a fisherman, becoming the main subject of a work that falls between earthly and otherworldly reality, as well as between still life and "landscape." Certainly, the fish depicted in Matisse's fishbowl in his "Goldfish" from 1912 are alive, but the still life is still very close to the representation of an interior. Let's move on to landscapes!
AQUARIUM (2023)Painting by Alexandra Djokic
Landscapes
Landscape painting is a genre that, as the name suggests, primarily focuses on outdoor settings, both real and imaginary, as the earliest examples of such representation teach us, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Landscape with a River and some watercolors by Albrecht Dürer. However, landscape painting only became a distinct genre at a later stage, during the Dutch Golden Age, when religious patronage waned, giving rise to a bourgeois painting tradition that also valued minor genres. Please note that when discussing the sea, we no longer use the term "landscape" but rather "seascape," an adjective that could be used to succinctly describe the artwork I have chosen, for example, in my concluding narrative about fish, William Turner's The Slave Ship. In this romantic maritime painting, one can only discern the elusive image of a ship sailing away into a densely cloudy sunset sky, while the waves close behind it, engulfing the slaves thrown overboard. Where are the fish? Along the ship's wake, they gather to feed on the human remains! The painter chose this harrowing scene not only in reference to James Thomson's poem "Summer," which indeed featured a rudder and a slave ship but also drew inspiration from a tragic incident that occurred fifty years earlier. In 1781, the captain of a slave ship bound for Jamaica, the Zong, had ordered 132 slaves to be thrown overboard due to scarce water supplies. Turner intended to denounce the African slave trade through his artistic medium, which persisted in the USA and other countries, despite slavery having been abolished in England for some time. Now, it's time to explore contemporary art, as exemplified by the works of three Artmajeur artists!
HAPPY FISH 1 (2023)Painting by Anh Tuan Le
Happy Fish 1 by Anh Tuan
Le We can interpret this work as a landscape characterized by the lively presence of a shoal of fish crowded together, seemingly leaping in unison, momentarily breaking the surface of the water. Beware, fish! Be cautious not to reveal yourselves all at once to humans, who will interpret this vision in monetary terms, already thinking of selling you at the nearest market, creating an unprecedented genre scene. Everything could turn into a still life if, instead, we thought of the background differently: the dark blue as a surface, while the sky blue as the wall of an apartment. This latter interpretation remains rather forced because the animals are too dynamic to settle for standing still, and we imagine them already reaching the opposite end of the canvas. The artist, however, conceived his art as a means of understanding the species in question, as he states: "The ocean world has always had creatures of mysterious beauty, including beautiful fish. Join me in getting to know beautiful fish through my colorful drawings to learn more about the free life of fish in the vast ocean." Anh Tuan Le is a Vietnamese artist born in 1974, whose figurative investigation is primarily drawn to the natural world, represented through interpretations of blooming branches, flowers in vases, water lilies, and schools of fish.
L'ÉTAL DE POISSONS 2 (2013)Painting by Jean-Pierre Borderie
FISH STALL 2 by Jean-Pierre Borderie
This acrylic on linen canvas updates the more traditional language of Flemish and Dutch genre painting, which often gave rise to markets where fish were accompanied not only by the stalls they rested on but also by sellers and buyers. In fact, "Fish Stall" frames only, and innovatively, the fish arranged side by side by type, while we only see the signs with prices from the stall, written by a merchant whose face we are not allowed to know. Has the Artmajeur artist treated a genre scene like a still life? If we consider that he focuses only on the animals, we can think so, although the presence of names and prices necessarily brings us back to a view of everyday life, ready to precisely evoke the moment when, without looking elsewhere, we engage in choosing our lunch. Jean-Pierre Borderie says about the painting: "In this painting, a fish stall comes to life under the brush, vibrating with lively and cheerful colors. Scallops, rich in delicate details, mix with sea bream and red mullet, creating a marine symphony on the canvas. Every shade captured reflects the freshness of the fish, evoking the lively atmosphere of a coastal market. The cheerful colors transport the viewer into the lively world of this market with its myriad reflections, where seafood becomes the protagonist of an engaging scene." The French artist from Artmajeur was originally a photographer, whose experimentation served to create paintings with captivating compositions, ready to investigate still lifes, genre scenes, as well as landscapes and views. Finally, it is important to note that the artist found in the colors of painting a means to expand his photographic vision, now ready to develop a greater propensity to express his emotions.
CONTRASTE ÉTHÉRÉ (2023)Digital Arts by Pierre Lamblin
ETHEREAL CONTRAST by Pierre Lamblin
Lamblin's work opens a new chapter in the history of fish representation in art, where, for the first time, fish become fashion accessories for portrait genres, suitable to be worn as scaly and slippery hats. Setting aside what it might mean to wear a fish headgear, I imagine an alternate world where there are many accessories in the shape of these living beings to flaunt in public. You can approach this reality by viewing other fish-themed works by Pierre Lamblin, who has certainly specialized in portraying female subjects accompanied by this type of animal. At this point, however, a doubt arises: what was the woman in "Ethereal Contrast" like before she bought her hat? Perhaps she was part of a genre scene, where she first encountered the animal that would later become her accessory. So, can we recognize the "ancestor" of the female figure in question in the protagonist of a previous masterpiece in art history, aimed at immortalizing a fisherman's daughter, namely Achille Fumi's "The Woman with Fish" (1930)? Fantasy aside, Lamblin is a versatile French artist who, divided between painting, sculpture, and digital art, pursues, through his work, the feeling of joy, which he wants to share with the viewer. This goal is achieved by addressing various themes, foremost among them: the sea, the world of childhood, consumer society, and animals.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
