Olympics Opening Ceremony, Paris, France Knowing your art history can save you considerable stress and heartache.
That, at least, was one of the lessons learned from the controversy surrounding a photo of a decadent tableau taken during the Olympics opening ceremony.
US President-elect Donald Trump, Pennsylvania, US Some photos choreograph themselves, prescient of their own enduring iconicity.
Ballerinas, New York City, US In April, more than 350 dancers gathered to set the Guinness World Record for the most ballerinas ever to pose simultaneously en pointe.
National Assembly, Seoul, South Korea A South Korean woman fearlessly seizes the barrel of a soldier’s loaded rifle.
Eleven hours earlier.
Grovier, Kelly.
These are 12 of the most striking pictures of the past year, ranging from the breathtaking image of a surfer in Tahiti to the famous picture of US President-elect Trump taken following an assassination attempt.
1. . Solar eclipse, United States, Bloomington, Indiana.
On April 8, a plane crosses a total solar eclipse over Bloomington, Indiana, with its long contrails silhouetted against a glistening corona. Of course, this is not the first time that the paths of the sun, moon, Earth, and airplane have crossed. In order to get as close as possible to a highly anticipated solar eclipse that passed directly over New York City in January 1925—some claim that this eclipse was the most watched in history—an American Navy airship, the USS Los Angeles, was equipped with 500 lbs (227 kg) of telescopes and the brains of seven scientists. American painter Howard Russell Butler was not on board, but he kept a close eye on the event from behind his easel back on Earth. He painted the third panel of a triptych of breathtaking eclipses (1918, 1923, and 1925) in the hopes that it would motivate schoolchildren.
2. Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, Paris, France.
Understanding your artistic past can help you avoid a lot of stress and heartache. At least that was one of the things that could be taken away from the controversy surrounding a picture of an extravagant scene from the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Some Christian and conservative critics mistook the image for a parody of The Last Supper and denounced it as odiously sacrilegious. The image depicts a naked figure lying decadently on a platter, surrounded by drag queens and a seductive singer sitting in a fruit bowl. The Paris 2024 organizing committee apologized for any confusion caused and explained that the tableau was meant to invoke the Greek god Dionysus rather than Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. It did this by referencing the contours of a later painting by Jan van Bijlert, The Feast of the Gods, 1635.
3. . Randk, South Sudan’s Transit Center.
In February, Sudanese refugees in a packed line at a transit center in Renk, South Sudan, wait for their turn for aid. Because of the fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, over half a million people had fled by the beginning of 2024, straining South Sudan’s resources to the max. A sharp contrast to the sobriety of the migrants’ circumstances is the joyful fluidity of vibrant textiles and the rhythm of rich patterns. Hussein Shariffe, a well-known Sudanese artist and filmmaker, blurred the distinction between the colors we see and those we feel in his poetic paintings. The photo’s intensity is reminiscent of the rhythm and texture of his abstract works.
4. . Indonesia is erupting a volcano.
Images of Mount Ruang, Indonesia’s powerful volcano, which erupted repeatedly in April, sending smoldering columns of ash and hot lava skyward, were both mesmerizing and ominous. Photographers have long been captivated by the terrifying power of volcanic eruptions, and a picture of the sublime eruption of molten ore, vaporized pumice, and incandescent tephra into the atmosphere was strikingly similar to the violent vision of British Romantic painter John Martin. He created his apocalyptic painting, The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, in 1822, two centuries ago, reimagining the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
5. . President-elect Donald Trump of the United States, Pennsylvania, USA.
Some images are self-choreographing, anticipating their own lasting fame. For example, the US flag being raised over Iwo Jima or the Black Power salute being performed by US athletes during the 1968 Summer Olympics medal ceremony in Mexico City come to mind. The image of a defiant, fist-pumping Donald Trump, scrambling to his feet with his face covered in blood after a would-be assassin pierced his right ear with a bullet at a campaign rally in July, while a disembodied Stars and Stripes tilted behind him, echoed elements of both of those two image-making milestones and left many wondering if this was the moment he won the election.
6. Gaza’s southern Palestinian refugee camp.
On February 29, two Palestinian girls decorate crowded refugee tents in southern Gaza with lanterns as part of their Ramadan preparations. The eerie glow of an uncertain sunset flickering in the distance stands in stark contrast to the lanterns’ gentle light. Approximately two million Gazans, or 90% of the population, will have been displaced by the conflict by summer. A well-known scene from art history is echoed by the enchanting act of lantern lighting: John Singer Sargent’s charming portrait of his friend’s daughters in a twilit garden in south-west England, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, which was patiently painted over several months when the light was perfect for a few brief moments each evening in autumn 1885. The only things lacking are the verdant grass, the wildflowers, and a persistent feeling of tranquility.
7. Olympics Tahiti men’s surfing heats.
In round three of the men’s surfing heats on July 29, the inspirational photo of Gabriel Medina of Brazil leaping skyward after tackling a massive wave off the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti went viral right away. From Salvador Dalí to Giotto, from Rembrandt to Il Garofalo, Medina’s seemingly effortless levitation is reminiscent of numerous religious depictions of mystical ascension in western art. Medina’s lifted right arm and the cool thrust of his index finger, which point exactly where his body and soul seem to be going, are what seal the startling coincidence of athletic elevation with spiritual ascent.
8. . Valencia, Spain, is flooding.
On October 30, a woman in Valencia, Spain, sees the flooded neighborhood below from her balcony as swept-up cars collide with one another like a herd of steel bulls tearing through the streets. Valencia experienced an unprecedented amount of rainfall the day before due to a meteorological phenomenon called a DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos), or “cold drop.”. The area was devastated by the 500mm (20in) of rain that fell in just eight hours. The distorted perspective of Simultaneità, La donna al balcone, a 1912 painting by Italian Cubist Carlo Carra, is reminiscent of the dizzying viewpoint of the Valencian woman, whose eyes allow us to see the world thump and contort. (The woman on the balcony, concur).
9. . Billie Eilish, US, New York City.
When US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish’s body is simultaneously amplified and vapourized into a substantial, if intangible, silhouette, she seems to dissolve into a dream of smoke-hung light during a listening party for the release of her album Hit Me Hard and Soft in New York City in May. The dissolution of the self into a dazzling mist is reminiscent of the evaporative visions of British painter JMW Turner, whose intricate work Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge, 1843, imagines an inconceivable moment of sublime illumination that establishes the groundwork for all the subsequent dazzling shades of existence.
10. Syria’s statue was toppled.
On December 9, a circle of Syrian citizens stomps their shoes on the head of a toppled statue of former President Hafez al-Assad in a show of extreme contempt. Numerous effigies of the father of former President Bashar al-Assad were demolished by Syrians in cities all over the country after the fall of the Baath regime and the exodus of the Assad family. As demonstrated by William Walcutt’s 1857 painting of a group of cheering New Yorkers removing British sculptor Joseph Wilton’s statue of King George III in July 1776 after a stirring reading of the recently adopted Declaration of Independence, there is undoubtedly a form of collective catharsis in the shared celebration of de-pedestaling statues of rejected rulers.
11. American ballerinas in New York City.
To set the Guinness World Record for the most ballerinas ever to pose simultaneously en pointe, over 350 dancers came together in April. Many of the competitors were seen in a picture eagerly getting ready for the competition, which perfectly captured the spirit and elegance of the historic event. The French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas would have likely been drawn to the cramped crush of so many young women. It appears that Degas enjoyed the agonizing sound of the joints “cracking” as much as the sight of talented dancers, whom he referred to as his “little monkey girls,” practicing and performing. He admitted to the painter Pierre-Georges Jeanniot that he had “considered woman as an animal” far too frequently.
12. South Korea, Seoul, National Assembly.
A woman from South Korea boldly grabs the barrel of a loaded soldier’s rifle. The photograph, which was taken shortly after President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law, depicts Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic party, battling heavily armed soldiers who were told to keep lawmakers from congregating. About the altercation, Ahn subsequently remarked, “I just thought that I needed to stop them.”. I did everything in my power to shake them off and push them away. Ahn’s unwavering resolve and even the gleam of steely light from her clothing remind us of the powerful 19th-century watercolour portrait of Joan of Arc by British artist John Gilbert.
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