Where is Bohemia for you?

They’re in there! Right now, they’re in there! My 2013 crop of AP Art History students are in the AP test right now, probably just finishing the 115 multiple choice questions in one hour, moving into the two thirty-minute essays, and then sometime about 40 minutes from now they will begin the last section of the six ten-minute essays. Oh, I love this day even though right now it is a little nail-bitingly anxious wondering how they are faring as they navigate 5,000 years of the world’s history and art…

Since the first year I taught the course I have chosen Anselm Kiefer’s painting, Bohemia Lies By the Sea  as the coda for the year and the course. It is a difficult painting—exactly how one should conclude—but one rich in metaphor and meaning. The image can be seen above—and the title is written in German across the top. In William Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale, the bard sets Act III, Scene 3 off the seacoast of Bohemia. Wait! Any superior geographer will know that Bohemia cannot have a seacoast!  It is landlocked! Shakespeare’s Bohemia, therefore, is an imaginary place beyond our ordinary sense of geography and understanding, a vision in which the extraordinary becomes possible. An Austrian poet, a friend of artist Anselm Kiefer, borrowed this theme from Shakespeare and wrote a poem which in turn inspired our artist Kiefer:

If Bohemia still lies by the sea,

I’ll believe in the sea.

And if I believe in the sea,

I can hope for our land.

The very last of the students’ journal sheets were due at the conclusion of last week’s classes and two students wrote insights about this painting that I thought were worth sharing with you. One student chose Bohemia for her “Masterpiece of the Week,” and another chose it for the category of my best insight. Enjoy these thoughts from these young scholars:

Here is insight #1:

“Bohemia lies by the sea.  I thought that this painting was the best way to end the last day of learning. Anselm Kiefer’s painting instilled a sense of nostalgia within me; this painting brings together past, present and hope for the future. He is a reflection of the stew of history and the atrocities of his history. He was a German born at the end of World War II; through his art he is attempting to deal with the aftermath of WWII. The poppies in this painting remind of those poppies placed over the graves of the Greek soldiers that symbolize that their death was not in vain that their potential was not lost or in vain. These poppies became a symbol of cherishment of those who died in WWII. Moving on to the phrase: “bohemia lies on the sea” it is a phrase that does not make sense because bohemia is landlocked. It is a phrase from a Shakespearean play, this phrase is symbolic of the hope that we will reach utopia that this heaven on earth exists if you believe in it. That if you believe that it will exists than you have enough hope for it to exist. It is an interesting reaction to WWII: it reminds me of The Raft of the Medusa that was also reacting to a modern event, by conveying to the audience that there is always that speck on the horizon for those that have the endurance to reach it. Similarly Kiefer is telling us that this utopia or ironically named “Nowhere” in Greek is only for people that have the ability to believe and trust in the future. It was the perfect way to end our course by instilling hope within us, that if we believe that we will do well on the AP then we will, or on an even broader scale, that if we believe that we will be great, successful then it will be true. Then Bohemia or anything is possible if we want it to be. We have infinite potential to do anything in the world, nature, religion, society; do not hold us back anymore. All what people have done in restricting us can be removed through our beliefs. It is an extremely powerful statement. After contemplating the statement I think I do believe that bohemia lies on the sea.”

 

Here is insight #2:

Mr. John’s Heart-Wrenching Comment of the Year

““Do we know where it ends?”

Mr. John,

We do not know. And perhaps it never ends. The idea of art never ends, the concept of evolving ideas never ends, the search for the meaning of life never ends. Because that’s what art is, isn’t it? It may be a “reflection of the values of a society or person” but it extends beyond that. Art has always been attempting to grasp an idea that may change the world, to make sense of it. If life made sense to anyone, art wouldn’t exist. Artists and all of humanity use art as a means to grapple with issues that they cannot understand.

I must admit I was disappointed with the art work you had chosen the end the year with. I had contemplated and anticipated what you had chosen for us and was so underwhelmed. When you changed the slide and Anselm Kiefer’s Bohemia Lies by the Sea came into view, I couldn’t even tell what it was. Why was I expecting some Renaissance piece or some expression work? Why was I expecting to know what it was that I saw? I had let my ignorance cloud my judgment.

Of course you weren’t going to project a work with the meaning written across it in bold letters. We have to analyze and make sense for ourselves what the meaning is. I cannot think of a better artwork to end the history of art with. Mr. John, I love it.

Why? Because as you asked, where does it end? It certainly doesn’t end with this piece. Although this was the last work for the class it’s not the last work for us. Kiefer’s road is a metaphor for all that is to come, all that we are to learn and contemplate. Not only is it going towards something, it is coming from something. The road comes from the dawn of man, when someone took rock to the walls of caves in England and drew the natural world as he saw it. The road winds through all of art history and leads to us—the viewer. What are we to do? How are we to continue the road? What can we do to create new ideas and to invoke change? This idea of the capacity of humans reaches through history to the Greeks who viewed man as the measure of all things. The Renaissance was based on this idea. This is apparent in the work.

But Kiefer is keener than that. Born in the aftermath of World War ll, he was in the midst of the consequences of humanity’s heinous intentions and consequences. The twentieth century consisted of artists who documented this and so they warped art to reflect the twisted human nature they felt around them. The meaning he projects is created with thick, passionate brushstrokes.

On either side of the road are fields marked with the crimson blood of poppy flowers. Each flower is planted in the spot of a fallen soldier, marking his death with honor, love, remembrance, regret and hope. All those feelings weren’t typed for dramatic affect. They are actually in the painting because each one represents the feeling of the eras in history that Kiefer merges into this work. In your words, “this is a work which constitutes a rich blend of references including recent history, ancient history, the distant past, poetry, literature, and the future.” “

  

So last night was the final night of study sessions. We looked at architecture, sculpture and painting. Then, just as I have done for the last 20 years the night before my AP test, we screened the moving “St. Crispian’s Day” speech from the 1989 film of Henry V. Oh, the fear and anxiety of those Brits as they look on the stronger, more powerful French! But then King Harry rallies them with the mantra that for years after this day they will remember this struggle and what they did the night before St. Crispian’s Day! He calls those rag-tag soldiers his “band of brothers” and wistfully notes that “we few, we happy few” will triumph!! The scene always works!

Then, after the scene, I remind them that they are indeed preparing for battle! And we should go outside and have our own battle. And with a flourish of drama, I grab a sack of pre-prepared and filled water guns from hiding and urge them to go outside and do battle with each other! I have been doing this for 10 years, and it also never fails to please and pop some of the bubble of anxiety hanging over them!

After we laugh and enjoy the play, they go home.

It is always a humbling and wonderful experience to teach this course and teach students like the two whose insights are represented here. They got the gist of the course. They got that it is about struggle and that “the struggle and the dance are the same,” and that if we hope enough, if we look deeply enough, Bohemia can indeed have a seacoast.

I look forward to greeting them as they bound out of the exam in a bit. I am hoping that they are understanding that there is no progress without struggle (thank you for that, Frederick Douglass!) and that they are enjoying the sea air and the breeze along their Bohemian seacoast.