Facing a fateful fork in the road: which road will America choose in it’s midterm elections …a tilt to the left toward survival of democratic values & principles or a tilt to the right toward further authoritarian degradation of governance ?
While we contemplate this question perhaps a glance at paintings by Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin: 1827-1901 , Die Toteninsel “Isle of the Dead” and Die Lebensinsel “Isle of Life”; might visualize the choice facing America. It should be noted that the artist did 5 “Isle of the Dead ” versions and copies or originals were owned by Freud, Hitler and Lenin and Vladimir Nabokov observed in his 1936 novel Despair that prints could be “found in every Berlin home”.
Only one “Isle of Life” was produced by the artist. Make of that what you will.
Note: The 4 th version was destroyed by fire and exists only as a black & white photograph.
Four images of “Isle of the Dead”
Court Painter version of “Isle of the Dead”
Court Painter version of ” Isle of Life”
