Paul Gauguin<\/a> conjure lush tropical forests, foam-crested waves lapping pristine beaches, and carefree Islanders performing hula dances: a vision inevitably darkened by the damages wrought by colonialism. The Islanders Eskridge painted, unlike Gauguin\u2019s, are not immobilised by the artist\u2019s desire to project meaning into them. They are walking, working, dancing, fishing and making music, living fully in the present even as they honour their rich traditions.<\/p>\nEskridge\u2019s enthusiasm for Islander culture finds a perfect match in biographer Cook\u2019s enthusiasm for Eskridge. While the more lyrically effusive passages in this volume might not appeal to everyone, the lavish illustrations drawn from multiple collections and the excellent captions help us understand the breadth, range and sophistication of a supremely adaptable painter who deserves to be better known. (Regrettably, some images\u2014of the lost Chicago murals, for example\u2014are AI-produced).<\/p>\n
Eskridge\u2019s paintings, whether they show bustling street scenes or re-create rituals he witnessed, vibrate with life. As a young man, he was entranced with Sandro Botticelli\u2019s The Birth of Venus (around 1485, in the Uffizi Gallery), and that painting\u2019s revelatory spirit lingers on in Eskridge\u2019s bright, luminous colours or in the way he arranges groups of people around a central figure or an activity. <\/p>\n
His training under Lhote shapes the cascading abstract forms Eskridge uses in the background of works such as Stone Fishing (around 1930, Gallery Hawaiiana). In this ancient Polynesian fishing practice, men use ropes with stones to herd leaping fish into shallower waters\u2014a communal effort as well as an occasion for individual daring, represented here beautifully by the young man in the middle, who jumps to grab a fish from the air. A later masterpiece is Hilo Wharf (around 1949, Honolulu Museum of Art), a harbour scene, in which Eskridge blends shirtless workers and the bodies of gigantic tuna fish, some already packed up, into an intense drama of shapes, colour and movement.<\/p>\n
Since Eskridge treated the Islanders and their culture with respect, they accepted him as one of their own<\/p>\n
Since Eskridge treated the Islanders and their culture with respect, they accepted him as one of their own, Cook tells us. They even asked Eskridge to represent them at the Chicago World\u2019s Fair in 1933. Invitations followed to provide Hawaiian-themed murals for the McCoy Pavilion in Honolulu\u2019s Ala Moana Park and, later, to design clothes for the Hawai\u2019ian label Paradise Sportswear.<\/p>\n
Always one to defy expectations, Eskridge, at age 64, married Helen Gebhardt and settled in Olympia, Washington. But the Islands kept calling. He died in April 1975 at a hotel in Honolulu named, appropriately, Hale-kulani, \u201chouse befitting heaven\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2022 C.J. Cook, Robert Lee Eskridge, South Pacific Dreams Publishing, 344pp, 509 col. illust., $59.95 (hb), published 11 August<\/p>\n
\u2022 Christoph Irmscher is a critic and biographer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a book about a love affair, one that ran so deep it yielded thousands of watercolours,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[39629,449,458,459,64,63,457,460,134,244],"class_list":["post-947391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-artists","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-books","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-hawaii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}