Review of Edwin Austin Abbey – American Flex in Gold and Nude Skin | Art and design

HeySuppose you could see, in the early light of dawn, how a huge painting covered with writhing nudes and gold leaf could be a symbol of the power of the United States? Not a big jump is it? And here it is, in the National Gallery, Edwin Austin Abbey’s study for The Hours, a massive circular painting that adorns the roof of the Pennsylvania State Capitol — a bold, blue-and-gold testament to the glory of the United States.

It is hard to believe—with museums everywhere begging for money from arms dealers and drug barons, and with arts funding increasingly declining—that in America at the turn of the last century, the arts were valuable. And Abe reaped the benefits. He was born in the United States in 1852 but made his name in the United Kingdom. And when the great kahuna of newly wealthy Pennsylvania came knocking on the door, he answered the call of the motherland.

Pennsylvania had abundant natural resources and vast amounts of industry, and when the statehouse in Harrisburg burned in 1897, they decided their new headquarters would be large and luxurious—and covered in gold leaf. In fact, the United States has not changed much.

Abe was commissioned to plaster the new state Capitol with allegorical and historical murals, and the finished study for the circular ceiling painting is the big draw of this evocative little exhibition. At 12 feet wide, it’s huge, but still only half the size of the original. Twenty-four figures dance around its perimeter in various states of undress—they are daylight hours, naked and yawning in the early dawn light, and wearing a pitch-black cloak under the midnight moon. The sky behind them is a deep azure blue, and the twinkling stars are a field of gold. It’s European symbolism on steroids, with Odilon Redon crossed with Gustav Klimt and given a seemingly infinite budget.

What a way to tell the world you’ve arrived as a big player on the international stage: with gold, nudity and bold swagger. To be clear, that’s the point of this: it’s propaganda, it’s soft power, it’s art as an instrument of the state. When you’re thriving, you do elaborate things to make sure everyone knows about them, and that’s how art has been used for centuries. Do you think Michelangelo commissioned the Sistine Chapel solely out of religious devotion? It is a flexing of cultural muscle, an expression of wealth and power through art.

Abbey’s study for The Hours is a beautiful, hypnotic swirl of painting, and all the brilliant gold and deep blue is very atmospheric. But the painting is also a bit rough. None of the shapes are particularly articulated or precisely defined, partly because it’s a study, and partly because they would have extended to the ceiling above your head, so who would have noticed?

The six studies displayed alongside it—including a heavily stained study for a large group portrait filled with American heroes like Daniel Boone and Benjamin Franklin—make you want to see the finished works. The wall text talks about how this exhibition “begins to bring the Abbey back to the attention it deserves.” But some rough paleo studies and small figures don’t make a very convincing case. “He’s great, honestly, I just caught him on a bit of a bad day” is not a great way to reintroduce an audience to a forgotten painter.

But the contemporary reverberations are many and loud. As Donald Trump remakes the White House with his gold-plated aesthetic, you realize that he is doing nothing new, and that states are always using art to consolidate their power, wasting gold reserves in the process.