Bruegel’s painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (about 1555) presents Icarus’s tragedy as being eclipsed by the indifference of surrounding characters, which Auden observes, noting “How everything turns away/ Quite leisurely from the disaster” (Auden ll.14–15). Auden’s 1939 poem “Musée des Beaux Arts,” presents a retelling of Icarus’s fall, but the poem does so through the lens of another artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Auden) uniquely situates Boghosian in the artistic tradition of the Icarus myth. Two of Boghosian’s other collages in this exhibition, The Fall of Icarus (1991) and The Fall of Icarus (The Oasis) (1991), allude to the same subject matter, but The Fall of Icarus (For W. Auden) to one of the most renowned poets of the 20th century, nearly twenty years after Auden’s death. He dedicates his 1993 collage The Fall of Icarus (For W. The artist sold to present collection P.965.105īoghosian also uses the Icarus myth to engage in an artistic dialogue across Western cultures, centuries, and continents. The Relatives of Icarus ( Los Parientes de Icaro) Matisse uses the background of his construction to recast Icarus at night, and Esqueda adds an “unreal” dimensionality and a female figure who is not present in the myth’s canonical plot.

In all three of these artists’ works-Boghosian, Matisse, and Esqueda-the medium of collage allows for the addition and subtraction of different elements to yield transformative interpretations of the same story. Esqueda’s illusionistic, geometric space features an Icarus who appears to escape, rather than fall, as a woman looks on mournfully. Xavier Esqueda, a Mexican artist whose style incorporates elements of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, exaggerates the assembled quality of his artistic narrative in The Relatives of Icarus ( Los Parientes de Icaro) (about 1965). Other artists have also represented Icarus in collage, such as Henri Matisse, whose Icarus, plate VII from the illustrated book Jazz (1947), seems to dance or float against a night sky. His use of collage as a medium for Icarus retellings mirrors the aggregated, constructed nature of myth, which grows from its original form to include associations from later years as it is told throughout history. Boghosian created three collages (currently in the Hood Museum of Art’s collection) centered upon Icarus and also several other collage interpretations of the myth, including a 1986 version and one in 2008. Surrealist sculptor and collage artist Varujan Boghosian (1926–2020) employed the Icarus myth to foster a revitalized interpretive space within the ancient story. The story is undoubtedly tragic, but the Greek mythological universe is filled with such tragic (and more overtly heroic) stories, so what about this myth continues to fascinate and inspire artists from 16th-century Europe to 21st-century America? The sun melted the wax of his wings, plunging him into the sea below. The youthful, brash Icarus lost himself in the joy of flight and soared too high.

Daedalus cautioned his son not to fly too close to the sea or the sun, which would destroy his wings. Icarus and his father, Daedalus, were imprisoned, so Daedalus, an inventor, fashioned metal and wax wings to aid them in an escape. The story of Icarus originated in Greek antiquity, but its best-known written version comes from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses (about 8 CE). The Icarus myth is one story that has fascinated artists throughout history and remains popular in contemporary visual art, literature, and music. Why do ancient myths endure? Why do we continue to resurrect and recycle these stories, rather than exclusively creating new ones or focusing on the myriad forgotten or little-known histories we could preserve instead? Myths have long been a source of inspiration for creative expression in the arts, perhaps because the various versions and interpretations of a single myth open interpretive space for artistic experimentation.

The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another.” – Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth

Icarus flight story