Bathers 1920

Editor: Theo van Rysselberghe’s “Bathers,” painted in 1920, presents a group of nude women at the water's edge. It's luminous! The application of oil paint almost feels granular. What draws your eye to this particular work? Curator: The materiality of "Bathers" immediately grabs my attention. Look at how Rysselberghe employs plein-air painting to depict these figures. How does working outside, directly in the landscape, shape our understanding of these bodies and their relationship to nature as a commodity? Editor: I suppose it suggests a raw, immediate interaction… less mediated. Is it challenging conventional expectations? Curator: Precisely. Before, such a subject would probably have been done in-studio, after numerous sketches. However, "Bathers" challenges traditional high art by embracing what some would see as “lower” forms of making and observation – in this case, emphasizing both the labor and its context. What do you think the original art appreciators might have felt about a move away from Academic styles? Editor: Well, a move from strictly defined subjects must have come as a bit of a shock, particularly when an everyday process like swimming becomes monumentalized on the canvas. The brushstrokes are much more apparent here, too; it looks unfinished by traditional standards. Curator: The very application of paint then – the visual evidence of artistic labor – becomes integral to its meaning. Consider then how ideas of 'finish' might also dictate art consumption and access! Editor: I never thought about it that way, that technique itself could speak to larger class or market forces. Curator: Indeed. Looking at the material qualities can often illuminate how art reflects larger social contexts. "Bathers" does more than depict figures; it embodies a shifting understanding of artistic labor and the raw, material world itself.