5 Works Of Art That Celebrate Fatherhood
Fatherhood can be a challenging but definitely rewarding journey. In honour of Father’s Day, we want to join in the celebrations all around the world, and what better way to do it than to dedicate this post to all father figures out there! In this blog article, we will explore five pieces of art that represent different aspects of fatherhood. Whether it’s celebrating a dad who is always there for his children or exploring the feelings that come with raising a child as a single parent, these works will inspire you to cherish the bond between father and child.
1.“Portrait of my father” - Frida Kahlo
Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo’s father passed away in 1941, 10 years before she painted his portrait. Carl Wilhelm (Guillermo) Kahlo was a Hungarian-German born, professional photographer and artist and as Frida described in her dedication below this portrait he had “a generous, intelligent and fine character” and was “brave because he suffered from epilepsy for 60 years but never stopped working, and fought against Hitler”. In a diary entry, Frida described her childhood as “marvelous because, although my father was a sick man, he was an immense example to me of tenderness, of work…” relaying their close bond.
As a result of his estranged and complicated relationship with his stepmother, Guillermo Khalo moved to Mexico in hopes of finding new opportunities where he met his second wife, Matilde Calderon who convinced him to take up photography. Photography and other creative forms really cemented the father-daughter relationship between Frida and her father along with their illness because when Frida was diagnosed with polio at the young age of 6, her father was the figure and support that helped her through and motivated her to remain in high hopes and active.
This painting is oil on masonite and follows the style of naive art also known as Primitivism which characterizes many of Frida Khalo’s works such as “The Broken Column” and “The Two Fridas”. As defined by Britannica, “naive art, also spelled naif art, is the work of artists in sophisticated societies who lack or reject conventional expertise in the representation or depiction of real objects.” Notably, she incorporated brown sepia tones in this painting to portray the photographs her father would take. The composition of this painting equally reflects the typical photographic pose of a subject alluding to her father’s career in photography. It’s also interesting that she captured his youth because in this piece he resembles his wedding day photos as opposed to the memories Frida retained of him aging rapidly. It appears as if Frida truly wanted to recollect his youth and her best memories of him which is reiterated when she states in her diary “You remember how handsome he was and how good?”. One of the beauties of art is its ability to record and safeguard the ephemeral qualities and memories of youth which Kahlo utilized in this painting.
2. “THE ARTIST’S FATHER, READING L’EVENEMENT” - Paul cezanne
Paul Cezanne is a renowned name in the art world, particularly with respect to his pioneering endeavors in art that radically changed the school of thought and significantly influenced abstract art in the 20th century. He was a French Post-Impressionist painter of the 19th century, famous for his powerful depiction of still-life, landscapes and portraits.
Among his celebrated portraits is his oil on canvas piece “The Artist’s Father, Reading L’Evenement” which dates back to 1866. According to the National Gallery of Art, Cezanne used this work as a means of examining his “emotionally charged relationship” with his father Louis-Auguste Cezanne who, by profession, was a banker. Cezanne tastefully exaggerates Courbet’s palette knife technique and use of thick layers of pigment in order to capture the tension of the father-child relationship in this piece. Even the title of this work can allude to the distant and tense relationship between Paul Cezanne and his father because of the use of the nouns “the artist’s father” as opposed to a pronoun preceding the noun indicating their relations such as “my father”.
This piece depicts his father sitting in an uncomfortable position on a chair, distorted ever so slightly by tilting him at an angle to create perspective, asymmetrical balance and a dramatic effect. This is due to the visual weight of the piece. That’s to say, the sizing of components such as his father’s legs hold a lot of visual weight by being larger and appearing heavier. Equally, the shoes being a lighter and brighter hue of brown than his coat, for example, impacts the visual weight of the piece because bright colours are usually visually heavier than dull colours. Regarding perspective, it was typical of Cezanne to use the inverse projection to position the major contours of the subject towards the viewer. His father’s face is positioned in the direction of the viewer to establish a line of direct communication.
Notably, during the early 1960s, Cezanne was supposed to be studying law or banking but he rejected it and instead studied art which his father considered to be impractical. However, Cezanne’s friend, novelist and pioneer of Naturalism, Emile Zola played a pivotal role in the advocation of Cezanne’s art studies and career which Cezanne draws reference to by the inclusion of the newspaper L’Evenement that Cezanne’s father would often read.
This work is also a depiction that not all father-child relationships are ideal and healthy but even estranged relationships warrant acknowledgment because on a day like Father’s Day it can be challenging for individuals with those types of relationships.
3. “The far away dad” - cbabi bayoc
Cbabi (pronounced kuh-bob-bi/ kʌbɒbi) Bayoc is a visual artist and illustrator residing in St. Louis, Missouri whose focus is on staying true to himself and creating what he loves - music and human expression - and that’s not the only exciting thing about him. His name is actually an acronym for Creative Black Artist Battling Ignorance and Blessed African Youth of Creativity.
As stated on his website, “In 2012, Bayoc began his 365 Days with Dad series. This New Year’s resolution to paint a positive image of black fatherhood each day for the entire year resulted in a journey that was inspiring (and exhausting!), ultimately resulting in the sharing of many stories of good experiences, no experience and hopeful experiences of Dads of all life stages. The project started a dialogue within the community about the importance of a strong foundation and support system for all children, no matter the age.” In an interview with CHS Globe, the student news site of Clayton High School in Missouri, Bayoc stated that “There are too many [children] who don’t either have their dad in their home or know them. I wanted them to know that there are Black men that were responsible and taking care of their children”. That was a motivating factor and inspiration for Bayoc to paint portraits of real stories and experiences of fatherhood like in the painting pictured above.
“The Far Away Father” illustrates the story of a deployed father who is spending time with his children by reading to them. This painting depicts the universal moment between father and child before bed that creates a sense of intimacy and warmth. The title of the work is emphasized in the painting by its inclusion twice on the book which establishes juxtaposition and foreshadowing between the meaning and the image portrayed because the father is currently physically near and with his children but will soon be physically far despite always being emotionally near. The gaze of the daughter is quite beautiful in itself as we can see the tiredness behind her eyes but also the admiration and love for her father as she gently glances at him. All in all, this heart warming piece portrays the dedication of a tired father to his children and his children’s love and appreciation for him.
To view more of Cbabi Bayoc’s work from his ‘365 Days With Dad’ collection, click here.
4. “FIRST STEPS, AFTER MILLET” - VINCENT VAN GOGH
Vincent Van Gogh… who doesn’t know this name, right? He was a celebrated and influential 19th century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter renowned for his impulsive and bold brushwork and application of vivid colour in his still-lifes, portraits, self-portraits and landscape paintings.
Between 1889 and 1890, Van Gogh painted his oil on canvas piece, "First Steps, After Millet” which both celebrates fatherhood and shows Van Gogh’s admiration for and inspiration from the work of French artist, Jean-Francois Millet. “First Steps. After Millet” was one of the 21 works that Van Gogh used inspiration from Millet. Millet’s version of this particular piece was a pre-Impressionist black crayon sketch on tan paper. This painting, featuring a father and daughter welcoming each other with outstretched arms, is a faithful rendition of Millet’s original work as elements such as the clothes drying on the fence, the spade in the soil and the movement and stance of the figures remain the same with additional new elements such as the sky, the gate, and the increased distance between the subjects. Van Gogh was able to capture such a beautiful moment of this family working alongside each other contentedly on an ordinary day by not focusing or adding details to the faces of the individuals which integrates a universal quality in the artwork because it can now represent and be more relatable to numerous families. He equally opted for a different colour palette to Millet’s monochromatic one by applying blues, browns, greens and whites to bring vitality and energy to the piece.
5. “MAKING A CASTLE WITH A CARTON IS VERY ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY, PITY IT’S BEEN CRUSHED” - BLUE LAN SHENGJIE
Lan Shengjie aka Blue is a Taiwanese artist and single dad who, if you don’t already know of, you should get acquainted. In an email interview with Smart Parenting, Blue explains that “when you have a kid, a lot of things happen unexpectedly” which can be the new anthem for parenthood honestly. It’s a journey about acceptance, growth and adaption. The great thing about his work is that it’s realistic and he does not attempt to sugarcoat or represent a filtered, utopic version of fatherhood or of being a single parent.
The illustration above shows the simply heart-warming moment between Blue and his son exploring their imaginations and playing in a castle made from cardboard. Joy fills the father’s face as his son looks up to him and their eyes connect. In his drawings, he spends “lots of time to find the angle or the viewpoint that lets the reader see the scene. The angle is the message.” In art, angle can play an important role as it is the technique implemented to subtly impact the psychological viewpoint of the observer. What this means is that the angle of a piece can affect how we interact with and perceive the work and its subjects. For example, in the image above, Blue utilizes the principles of angle to focus on the pure joy in the father’s face, which in turn transfers itself to the audience, perhaps because he wishes to focus on relaying the message of the positive impact that this new chapter has on the father and perhaps, also to incorporate the message that children look up to their fathers shown by his son looking up at him.
To view more of Blue’s work, click here.
In closing, I want wish all father figures out there a Happy (belated) Father’s Day and to leave you with a quote by father of a nation and 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, on fatherhood which will hopefully incite some reflection - “Any fool can have a child; that doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father”.