America 500 Years
Encyclopedia
Nabil Kanso
Nabil Kanso is a Lebanese-American painter born in Beirut, Lebanon.His works deal with contemporary, historical and literary themes, and are marked by figurative imagery executed with spontaneous and vigorous handling of the paint and often done on large-scale formats...
in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. The works in the series base their subjects on historical events in the Americas over the course of five centuries.
Description
America 500 Years series of paintings comprise a wide range of works including 9 mural-scale paintings executed in oil applied in rhythmic succession of vigorous brushwork infusing patterns and textures of varying density with intense tones of predominantly blue-black figures set against a combination of orange, red, and yellow ground.The compositions divide the canvas space into distinct sections within a planar layout constituting the basis for constructing a scene of separate parts offering variations of viewpoints in their contrast between subject matter and technique. The pictorial organization conveys a volumetric presence of highly condensed images in juxtaposed planes expanding their irregular shaped boundaries near the top of the canvas. The relation between them is important for an overall understanding of the picture and its meaning.
Paintings in the series
1 - Discovery measuring 3.65 meters (12 ft tall) and 4.50 meters (14 ft) wide depicts the first landing of Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
in the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
in a scene divided in two parts corresponding to two worlds, one posed by the arrival of Columbus, the other inhabited by natives
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
At the forefront of the right section stands a figure representing Columbus with a fierce look resting one hand on his sword, the other raising the cross. A silhouetted figure rises behind him with one arm raised and one stretched toward two sails above an assemblage of figures and objects that include a rearing horse
Horses in warfare
The first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of horses ridden in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons...
, a figure in body armor, a mariner's compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
, gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
and cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s alluding to some of the equipments and instruments brought by Columbus.
The left part depicts an eagle and a group of figures that may represent the Taíno
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
or Arawak natives, referred by Columbus as Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
2 - Encounter 3.65 X 5.50 meters (12 X 18 ft) depicts a scene reflecting the encounter between Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
, the Spanish conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
and Montezuma, ruler of the Aztec empire. The scene entails two sections separated by a V-shaped space formed by the intersecting fall of a figure warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
and an eagle as a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for the Aztec fallen eagle
Cuauhtémoc
Cuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
.
The right plane shows a dominant figure personating Cortés with a steering look reaching for his sword drawn over two struggling figures. He leans backward upon a female figure representing his interpreter and mistress known as la Malinche
La Malinche
La Malinche , known also as Malintzin, Malinalli or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés...
. The upper area shows a screaming figure with wide-flung arms arching a wild looking horse above the figures of a priest and a soldier.
The left section depicts a figure representing Montezuma holding a flower necklace. His posture orients a triangular shaped plane fitted with a group of figures, a Serpent and objects with symbolic forms.
3 - Covenant 3.65 X 5.50 meters (12 X 18 ft) depicts a scene based on the subject of the arrival in America of the early settlers known as the Pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
who wrote the governing Compact
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
aboard the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
ship that landed at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
.
The painting's two sections are parted at the top center by a red-yellow sun amid a whirlwind of pendulous shaped forms extending themselves over the entire picture surface.
At the top right side, dripping lines around the sun seem to give shape to the sail of a ship and overlap three joined figures that may refer to the signatories of the Covenant. Below them are thrusting figures reflecting natives
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
appear with offerings such as plants and staples. The lower forefront shows a clergyman above a female figure leaning backward and holding in her hand a torched broom in flame alluding to the Salem witch trials
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
.
4 - Birth 1776 (3.65 X 5.50 meters) depicts a scene on the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and Independence in a composition that divides the canvas in two parts linked at the center by a massive tree extending its branches in all directions scattering a wild assortment of shapes suggesting "organic cells that seem to subdivide and float around the figures." A fearless eagle sits at the top against a background of red and white stripes reflecting the American flag in a space dotted with stars and an image of the Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House , the bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY...
. The area along the sides of the tree trunk shows the faces of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
and Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
.
The left and right sections are linked by the tree trunk in establishing a unified base line projecting forms of muskets and rifles.<
5 - Branching (3.65 X 5.50 meters), continues the motif of the tree in Birth 1776 with a tripartite scene on the war of liberation and independence in Latin America depicting a "ponderous tree-trunk that builds a pathway" throughout the picture. The structured planes are surrounded by light bluish space containing forms reflecting the faces of Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, José de San Martín
José de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...
, Antonio Sucre, Francisco de Miranda
Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Ravelo y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan revolutionary...
, Miguel Hidalgo
Miguel Hidalgo
Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor , more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.In 1810 Hidalgo led a group of peasants in a revolt against the dominant...
, and José Morelos
José María Morelos
José María Teclo Morelos y Pavón was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary rebel leader who led the Mexican War of Independence movement, assuming its leadership after the execution of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1811...
.
6 - Chains Under a Blinding Sun (3 X 5.50 meters) is based on the subject of slavery depicting a three-part scene reflecting dark blue figures within a compressed space of deep yellow planes under a partial view of a hazy sun.
Long pendulous shapes with circumventing rings emerge from both sides and converge at the center with dripping lines over chained and struggling figures and symbols of enslavement, hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
, lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
, and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
.
7 - Bleeding Eagles (3 x 5.50 meters) bases its subject on Native Americans with a scene imparting various allusions, symbolism and contrasting elements. The composition sets intense dark blue figures inside two fire-red rectangular planes whose upper parts recede outward creating a wide V-shaped central section dominated by two fighting eagles. They span their wings in a crisscross formation scattering flying feathers over a grey-white space defined by bluish flowing forms outlining drawn faces of native chiefs Pontiac
Chief Pontiac
Pontiac or Obwandiyag , was an Ottawa leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion , an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian War. Historians disagree about Pontiac's...
, Joseph
Chief Joseph
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, or Young Joseph was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho...
, Cochise
Cochise
Cochise was a chief of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache and the leader of an uprising that began in 1861. Cochise County, Arizona is named after him.-Biography:...
, Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
, Black Hawk
Black Hawk (chief)
Black Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the United States. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle, he was not one of the Sauk's hereditary civil chiefs...
, Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
, and Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
.
Above the chiefs’ heads and across the upper plane, sweeping shapes of red strips with black-blue contours fuse with flowing lines of varying densities. They appear dripping over the entire image highlighting the movement and tension of the scene.
8 - North-South Split (3.65 X 5.50) meters deals with the subject of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in a scene composed in three sections demarcated at the edges by a white-bluish space that seems to widen around the upper middle part with floating forms outlining on one side the face of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, and on the other, the faces of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson
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. Their heads are turned toward the central image showing a female figure diving over a child falling between two opposing figures that personify the fighting between the Confederate and Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
armies.
The right side plane is occupied by dark-blue figures surrounded by circular forms of chains breaking and loosening within the organism of a compressed space.
The left side shows figures, elements, and symbols reflecting some events that may allude to the Mexican American War.
9 - Glimmering Dawn (3.65 X 5.50 meters) depicts a three-part composition with an atmospheric evocation of the twentieth century. It is suggested that "the attitudes and motions of the figures and forms appear defined by webs of fire-lit strings" descending from different directions with a focus at the top of the central section occupied by an umbrella shaped sphere conjuring the threat of an atomic explosion. White-blue strips flowing with figure forms surround the three sections.