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Bill Lansford's The Rapidity Of Sleep

Decent Essays

The Rapidity of Sleep is a unique piece of artwork. The more times a viewer stares at this piece the more revealing to the observer it becomes. The painting has so much to tell in one picture that each person who looks upon it may get a different story. But the content always stays the same. The form and content will always remain the same, although to each viewer, may mean something different than what is depicted. The Rapidity of Sleep is a harsh piece with a lot of content to get out of it. This painting is almost a narrative art, telling a story of the dead sleep we all will, one day, experience. “War is very simple; you get the enemy or he gets you.” (Bill Lansford, section 22) This statement clearly shows the simple yet tragic background of war. The figures towards the bottom of the painting portray bone-like creatures, the whites and reds make it seem like the blood and bones are still present. The shape of these weird bone-like figures make it seem like some of them are still in action and fighting. “They all had the same expression because none of them had any expression at all.” (W.C …show more content…

Something this painting has very little of. The first thing the eyes go to in this painting are the dull reds, ironically, the brightest colors in the painting. The quote, “We react on multiple levels of association with colors — there are social or culture levels as well as personal relationships with particular colors” (Harrington, 1) The intensity of the few but sharp colors in this painting The viewer can’t help but feel sad for the deformed figures in this painting, because of what they feel when they see the colors in this picture, or rather the lack of. The coloring in this painting gives more depth on what the artist had in mind. In conclusion, The Rapidity of Sleep is a very confusing, minimalistic, detailed, ironic painting. None of these adjectives fully grasp what this painting means. Yves Tanguy painted a picture and left it for the viewers to

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