George Gray Barnard
"The Struggle Between Two Human Natures"
1892-1894
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
What is George Gray Barnard sculpting?
Force one
The statue is called "Struggle of the Two Natures in Man." One person (I) is struggling to break free, standing up, as if trying to move forward fearlessly, with a meaningful goal waiting for him; while the other person (I) twists, stumbles, binds the other person's feet, as if refusing to let go, if not resolutely stepping on the arm, it is estimated that he will reach out and grab the other party.
Is this pattern of inner struggle familiar? Is Barnard's awareness in 1890 still going through 130 years later?
Ken Wilbur argues in The Spectrum of Consciousness that the cognitive model of human dualism produces several levels of dualistic opposition. One is to find that there is a difference between us and the environment, we have life and death, we like to live and fear death; the second is to find that the mind and the body are opposed, we like the rational mind and not the body full of instinctive desires; the third layer even if we only choose the mind, we only need the good part of the mind, not the bad part, only to admit "good me", not "bad me".
So we ask, can the repressed part really leave? Will he obediently lie flat? And if he really lay flat, as Barnard as a whole, would that part of the vigorous force below disappear? The winning gladiator has only half his life force, right?
George Gray Barnard, American Art Archive, Washington
Frankly speaking, this is also what we often experience, no matter how you suppress it, your desires will always appear stubbornly, your "bad me" will always strike suddenly, and you spend a lot of energy on internal struggles. Or, we just have to be rational and not feel; we only acknowledge the moments of good character and excellent performance, don't be frustrated and frustrated and helpless to happen, there is a little emptiness inside behind the brilliance, we feel incomplete, unhappy, unnatural.
Barnard reveals the truth that no matter which gladiator is part of the "me," it is full of power. Maybe what we're going to learn is: Can I hear every single one of my voices? Can I see and care for everyone who asks for help? Can I learn to take care of my sorrows, sufferings, desires, channel all the life energies, and come together to cope with life?
Psychology was just emerging when this work appeared, and after years of effort, human beings have explored more to support themselves. If we can respond to Barnard right now, I have in mind the sculpture of a man trying to lift another person up, called Reunion of the Two Natures in Man! Haha, this is also a Chinese and an American exchange, we have long said: "Originally born of the same root, why is it too urgent to fry each other?" ”！
George Gray Barnard – Art gladiator
George Gray Barnard as a child, American Art Archive, Washington
Who is this young sculptor beloved by the audience, the "Art Gladiator"? George Gray Barnard was born in Belfonte, Pennsylvania in 1863. His father was a Presbyterian pastor, so the family moved frequently. One of Barnard's early interests was... Specimen stripping. Before he turned 15, he reportedly had an impressive collection of stuffed animal toys. This hobby undoubtedly helped him to understand the basics of anatomy very well. The young Barnard worked in a jewelry store for a while, but as a teenager he began studying sculpture with Leonard Volk. He then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and traveled to Paris in 1883. He studied at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where his teacher was Pierre-Jules Cavillier. Barnard, like many novice artists studying in the French capital, lives in poverty. Anna Bilienska's career was no exception.
In 1886, Barnard's luck came, Clark became interested in him, became his patron, ordered him sculptures and paid him scholarships, so that the young people achieved steady and sustained development. In 1896, as a recognized artist, he returned to the United States. He died in New York City in 1938.
Barnard is considered a representative of the new school of American sculpture. His work was influenced by Symbolism and August Rodin, but Barnard himself preferred to compare it to Michelangelo, admiring Michelangelo as a teenager.
Home of George Gray Banada
Madison, Indiana, USA
1898, Smithsonian Institution American Art Archive, Washington
Billyenska made a final correction to the painting in September 1890. Clark later gave the portrait to Barnard's parents, who hung it at their home in Madison, Indiana. In 1915, the work became the property of the state and was collected by the Pennsylvania State Museum.
Portrait of Sculptor George Gray Barnard in the Studio
Anna Billyenska
1890 Oil on canvas, 261.9 × 170.2 cm
Pennsylvania State Museum, Harrisburg
In Billyenska's painting, Barnard is in front of a sculpture called "The Struggle of Two Human Natures." He began to create it in 1888, one of the first stages of the painter's creation , clay models. Probably earlier Barnard had drawn a sketch, which was a smaller clay "sketch" of his future sculptures.
George Gray Barnard, American Art Archive, Washington
In 1890, he was already in the stage of completing a 1:1 scale version, and a year later, a plaster cast model was made on the basis of which. Every 19th-century sculptor knew that "clay is life, plaster is death, and marble is resurrection". Many works end their lives in the second stage, as casting or marble in bronze is an expensive operation, and plaster is easily damaged. Fortunately, Barnard could rely on the support of his patrons, so his work was preserved in noble Carrara marble. Artists often outsourced the final stages of their work to others, but Barnard himself carved his sculptures into stone after pre-treatment in Italy.
In Paris for more than a decade, Barnard refused to show his work to the public. He did not make his debut until 1894, when he was thirty-one years old. The wait was probably worth it, as Salon's jury accepted all six of the works he sent. Attention was drawn in particular to the biggest and most ambitious human struggle of his hypothesis, and he became famous overnight.
George Gray Barnard, The Struggle Between Two Human Natures, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The dramatic significance of the sculpture group certainly requires symbolic explanation, but even Barnard himself has repeatedly changed his mind about its meaning. The current title—the struggle between the two natures of mankind—was given much later, and at the Salon of 1894, the sculpture was shown as Je sens deux hommes en moi. "I feel like I'm only two people"). In the course of her work, Barnard simply called her "team." He also referred to the broadly understood subject of freedom. The depiction of the two warriors can be interpreted as the spiritual side of man overcoming his material part. In this case, the bat on the left shoulder of one of the figures is sometimes considered a symbol of darkness, in which the "inferior" nature of human beings is caught. According to different interpretations, Barnard came up with a new concept of a winner who suffers alongside the loser and constantly faces the risk of his own downfall.
Force 1: Generative Coaching