Chester Arnold "Two Rivers" (1996)

On a recent trip to the Nevada Museum of Art I checked out the Chester Arnold art exhibit on assignment. For once, it was a school assignment I actually looked forward to!

                Chester Arnold’s exhibit “On Earth as it is in Heaven” consists of several paintings that take on issues on the environment, economic development and industrialization. The painting that drew my attention the most was “Two Rivers” which Arnold painted in 1996 with oils on a canvas. The painting was inspired by an Old English poem called “Tweed and Twill” about two rivers who conversed with one another about how many more people drown in one river than the other. Note: One river’s flow is faster than the other.

                On the painting, the two rivers are centered, only separated by strip of green land that consists of several trees. There is a broken-down road towards the bottom of the painting and to the right of that is a rusty car that is flipped over. The river on the right is a clear blue and the land beside it is a lush green that looks to have never been touched by people. The river on the left is dark and murky and the land beside it is run down. On the top left corner land is yellowing and there is a road with two cars driving through. A little below the road is a cemetery, most likely there for all the people who have drowned in the rivers.

                The “Dark Landscapes” description next to the painting in the exhibit mentions how Arnold’s paintings from the 1980’s were meant to show how people ruined nature with industrialization. His paintings from the early 1990’s show how nature still has the upper hand. Perhaps this is the significance of the cemetery. People take over natural landscapes to add more house houses or industrial buildings to make more money. In the focus of trying to get rich we all lose sight of the importance of our natural resources. Eventually, people will grow old and pass on but nature (land) will still be around long after we are not. It will still get its chance to flourish. This is the upper hand that nature has on humanity.

[This concept reminds me of another one of Chester Arnold’s paintings ‘Two Ravens” from the same exhibit, but that is for another time.]