I HAVE A DREAM ( le radeau )
acrylic painting on canvas H. 140 x W.140
“I Have A Dream”
‘The Raft of Medusa’ (1819) is a monumental painting by Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) and property of the Louvre . It tells the story of the tragic shipwreck of the French frigate ‘la Méduse ‘ on July 5, 1816 off Mauretania . When it sank, a raft was hastily built from which 149 crew and passengers had to save themselves. They were then left behind by the captain and the officers without food and water while they managed to save themselves with the only lifeboat. After floating around in the ocean for thirteen days they could be rescued. Only 15 of them survived , the others had been jumped overboard , pushed, died by starvation or even cannibalism . The painting was presented at the Paris Salon in 1819 and quickly became a political indictment of both the incompetence of the royalist captain and the French government of the day.
Gilbert Retsin associates, with the reinterpretation of Géricault ’s iconic painting , a historical dramatic event and a current and complex theme: the crossing of desperate African migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. By referring to Géricault’s painting, which depicts the disaster of a shipwreck and the struggle for survival, Retsin places the current migration crisis in a broader context. Here ,the raft becomes a metaphor for the precarious situation in which migrants find themselves when they dare the dangerous crossings to Europe. The dominant European flag symbolizes the promised land to which many will never arrive…
Martin Luther King chanted “I have a dream ” and pointed to equality and justice. With this quote, Retsin points to the aspirations of migrants who, between hope and despair, are dreaming of a better life , a new future …..
Retsin Gilbert: “I have a dream ”
Acrylic, pastels, street art, contemporary on canvas 140 x 140
Publication & copyright : Retsin Gallery Knokke-zoute