Two is the Loneliest Number: Depictions of Friendship in Contemporary Western Art

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Josephine Clark

Abstract or Description

Romantic love has been widely depicted in art and examined by scholars; however, platonic love between friends has received scant scholarly attention, leaving a gap in our understanding of how such images embody the cultural practices and values of their societies of production. My thesis examines examples of Western European and American contemporary art that depict friendship. These depictions illustrate the educational influence such images have on certain communities, which in turn reflects the hierarchy of values in that community. To display diversity in the reaches of this value system, I address several works that vary in medium with an assortment of artists from different backgrounds. I then examine these works in greater detail, revealing their similarities and differences, then addressing where Western contemporary art falls short in depicting these values. Through comparison, the differences between depictions of platonic love and romantic love are addressed, as well as the accessibility of each. This discourse is crucial today more than ever as the United States is undergoing a loneliness epidemic, due to a lack of strong community connections. The overwhelming presence of today’s loneliness epidemic reveals how the value placed on community in a given society positively impacts the mental well-being of society. I argue that artistic portrayals of friendship complicate traditional notions of love, and in the process, challenge Western capitalistic values centered on individuality. When put on display in public places, artwork illustrating platonic love then becomes an educational tool, subconsciously and consciously working to reinstall our essential human need for strong communal connections. By investigating artistic depictions of non-romantic platonic love, this project reveals the relationship between Western notions of individuality and artistic production and highlights revisionist interventions that seek to erode the focus on romantic love.

Mentor

Dr. Yang Wang