Walking into Birmingham Museum and Art Galley, one can be faced with many white faces. One painting that strikes me, is The Roffey Family by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1765–1769 , although after time a painting can indeed bleach, Reynolds paintings often lack red pigment, showcasing clown white flesh. Most of Reynolds paintings identify with a bizarre nature of the application of white. The people only recognisable by eyes, nose , mouth and other bodily parts and clothing, inhumanly white, no longer do the figures reflect an implied natural generated light but instead are made of White, and if God is simulated in most paintings as being the light generated white, these absurd creatures are perceived as being closer to God. ‘Embodying’ His glow, God is referenced as being ‘the light of the world.’ Whether or not this is the modern take on passages in the Bible (I will have to do my research) he is implied as being light generated white. Which is only possible through the use of bare canvas, allowing light to travel through, thus the idea is ‘painted’ ( pigmented white.) However this could also be a social political invention to employ power to ‘white’ people. In the attempt of becoming or being seen as ‘Godly’, the artist has painted the figures extremely white, bloodless, inhuman in appearance. These four figures are posed in ‘royal’ attire. Simulating the idea that royalty are naturally closer to God.
Mark making, sculpture and paintings were born way before photography these constructed ideas have been lingering in the air for centuries. Sadly Art has been the driving force to these ‘ideal’ perceptions of beauty. And is still the most ruthless contributing factor, if not the factor in which the market depends upon.
