Reading the Series
Considering the tone of the series, Arnest’s difficulty finding exhibition is sign of success. “They are meant to be repellant,” according to the artist.1 Although some works are palatable, others are visceral and distressing. The wide range of subjects in the Scenes form a picture of “life” that is more comprehensive than life’s pleasure or misery alone.
While war, social strife, and political corruption make it easy to entertain the feeling that society is the sum of its most severe and brutal moments, Arnest offers reminders of life’s other offerings. However, these mementos are not necessarily meant to sugarcoat or comfort. After all, Arnest is primarily concerned with the “passivity and indifference of the fortunate and comfortable.”2 He instead constructs a visual world where the ordinary and unsettling coexist, creating a record of his own experience while inspiring reflection in the viewer. They speak to a state of the world—at least as Arnest saw it—which saw “a depersonalization brought about by excessive media activity” and an irrecoverable loss of trust in public institutions.3 The drawings represent the artist’s reflections, informed by his personal perception of those who benefit from and are victimized by power.
Simultaneously, each work provokes the viewer to consider their position in or relative to the scene. The crowd, gathered in protest, looks at the viewer and questions whether they will join their fight (Image of Protestors). The orchestra plays on as the viewer sits in darkness with the audience and imagines the melodies (Image of Orchestra). A man kneels, looking up at two armed figures flanking the viewer, waiting fearfully for the next strike (Image of Person on Ground Being Beaten). Arnest communicates images of the world as he understood it; yet, at the same time, he injects the viewers into his scenes, hoping they come to their own understandings. By showing systemic violence next to everyday occurrences, the artist warns that complacency enables cruelty and prompts the viewer to consider whether they enable or resist such systems.
Arnest expresses his warning stylistically, as well. With little intention of portraying his subject naturalistically (even when his reference is obvious, as in the case of Image of Person Making Peace Sign with Birds) Arnest implies his disinterest in creating a factual record. Instead, the omission of details and rendering reflects the severity of the consequences of society’s moral failings. The identity of any one subject in any one piece is not as important as the broader political or societal fault they represent.
[1] Diane Wengler, “Bernard Arnest: An Artist for All Seasons,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, January 17, 1981, 13.
[2] Bernard Arnest, “Statement from Artist,” in Bernard Arnest, exh. cat. (Williams Printing Company, 1980), 3.
[3] Wengler, “Bernard Arnest: An Artist for All Seasons,” 13.