AP Art History: The Swing (AFTER Fragonard)-- #244

AP Art History: The Swing (AFTER Fragonard)-- #244

• Saturday, June 5, 2021

 

The Swing (After Fragonard) by Yinka Shonibare 

    This work may seem familiar due to the Rococo masterpiece The Swing by Fragonard  (click to learn more), and it is! Yinka Shonibare's sculpture is based off of the original, but with some noticeable modifications. For example, the headless figure, a nod to the French Revolution that was to come after the original time period. 

Bio of Work:

Title: The Swing (After Fragonard)
Date: 2001
Medium: Mixed Media Installation- including cotton fabric, rope, oak, etc.
Museum: Tate, London 

Analysis: 

Yinka Shonibare's figure in The Swing (After Fragonard) is headless, the artist's emphasis on the terror that was to come after Fragonard's original piece, seemingly due to the French Revolutionary guillotine. His work is also missing the two peering men, and the audience fills this gap. In contrast with Fragonard's original figure's silk and lace garments, this figure is wearing African printed textiles, a nod to anti colonial beliefs. Shonibare dresses his figure in African printed Dutch wax cotton. Indonesian batik textile techniques were appropriated by the Dutch, while the English tried to copy this, making merely a fake. Though the Dutch did not care for the imitation fabric, African peoples loved it and adopted the textile. Although the original, Rococo art was a lavish scene of pleasure, times and circumstances have changed, emphasized by Shonibare's work. 

Sources: AP Art History Guide-- Barron's, and https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shonibare-the-swing-after-fragonard-t07952