Art Analysis: Diver By Jasper Johns

“Diver” by Jasper Johns painted in 1962-1963 uses charcoal and pastel on a paper mounted on canvas divided into two panels. The advantages of using charcoal and pastel is that it gives the painting a dark undertone of color and with the use of the pastels along with it, it creates the bold black and dark brown undertones. You can see where he used less of the charcoal in the art work from the light areas down the center and to the right bottom corner of the painting. Johns used vertical and diagonal lines throughout his painting. You can see the broad and unfinished brushstrokes more so in the areas of light to dark brown. These lines are thick, thin, and some are even curved seen on the bottom half of the painting. They come right through

Eakins uses this medium because he can blend his brush strokes to the point where you can’t make them out and it’s like a picture was taken. The lines of the painting are thin and a mixture of vertical and horizontal lines. The colors are realistic and dark yet bold. They create a feeling of being in the room within the painting standing beside the doctor. You can see that the spotlight of the painting is on the boy getting the surgery in the off center are of the painting, like a spotlight that we use in today’s operating rooms. He uses the shading to show the depth of the painting and how far back the room goes with the people all around the room within the painting. The doctor is at the center of the painting and besides the boy receiving surgery, he is the central focus. You can see the space within the painting as you move your eyesight from the background with the young men studying around the center stage that the doctor is in. His brush stokes are controlled and precise to preserve the realism and life like look. This painting is in excellent condition and is large measuring 8 feet x 6 feet 6 inches (243.8 x 198.1 cm). Eakins follows the same idea of realism throughout most of his paintings. It was purchased by the Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 with help from 3600 donors. It was originally gifted from the Alumni

While I’ve not had the opportunity to see Eakins work I can say its vastly different from Johns painting. They both seem to depict the idea that nothing is as it seems to be. I believe that Johns is trying to tell us that even in the dark we can find the light behind it, waiting to be found and waiting to shine through. Eakins work is trying to convey the message that even in the spotlight of society we can always be consumed by the darkness that is societal pressures on even the smartest and strongest willed people like the doctor in the painting. One of the clear differences we can see between the two is the line between abstraction and realism. Eakins painting is almost like a photograph of what is happening at that moment in time, frozen in the spotlight you can feel the anxiety the doctor is having as the boy on the table is being treated for a medical condition. Johns is almost the opposite, its showing that our societal pressures are often covering us in a shroud of darkness, but even with that pressure there is light underlying it all. This shows how society, even though it often overbearing and difficult to adjust to the constantly changing societal norms that we can persevere and become stronger because of those pressures. The dark and bold colors they use in their paintings is clearly their way of showing us that we have crazy societal expectations. Even