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Capitalist Apocalypse in the Painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung 179

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Capitalist Apocalypse in the Painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung 179 Capitalist Apocalypse in the Painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung 179 Martin LANG C A P J M G C Abstract: Taking as its starting point Tate Britains Keywords: A pocalypse, Art, Painting, John Martin, recent John Martin retrospective, entitled John Martin: Gordon Cheung, Capitalism. Apocalypse, this paper considers the possibility that de- pictions of biblical apocalyptic scenes in Martins paint- ings are actually metaphors for revolution (French and th American). The rst half of the paper investigates possible John Martin was a 19 century English links between Martins apocalyptic imagery, British impe- Romantic artist, famous for his apocalyp- rial ambitions and the rise of capitalism. It also considers tic paintings. His nal major work, a trip- how Martins plans for urban redevelopment are linked to tych, depicted the actual moment of the his preoccupation with cataclysmic doom. Through icono- apocalypse and its aĞermath. It com- graphical readings of Martins paintings the paper hypoth- prised of the following three paintings: esizes that themes such as the fall of great civilizations and the wrath of god are not coincidental but concerns The Last Judgement; The Great Day of his contemporary to Martin caused by capitalist expansion. Wrath; and The Plains of Heaven. There is The second part of the paper goes on to investigate the established research linking John Martins possibility that our contemporary interest in the apocalypse paintings to the revolutionary times he is in fact, just as it was in Martins time, a metaphor for lived in (Feaver The Art of John Martin; militant unrest, which is manifested in theory and culture because of our inability to imagine the end of capitalism Myrone John Martin: Apocalypse; Morden): in this context the paper turns to contemporary painter the American Revolution that occurred just Gordon Cheung to reconsider the idea, attributed to before he was born1; the French Revolution Jameson and iek, that it is easier to imagine the end of that occurred in the rst year of his life; the world than the end of capitalism. and the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent Martin Lang revolutions that followed. University for the Creative Arts & University of Kent John Martins recent retrospective at Email: [email protected] Tate Britain was the rst comprehensive EKPHRASIS, 2/2012 1 John Martins father fought and was APOCALYPSE IN CINEMA AND VISUAL ARTS. wounded in the American Revolutionary NEW IMAGES FOR OLD MYTHS War. pp. 179-188 180 Martin LANG survey of his work for thirty years. This to question if, just as in John Martins renewed interest is not surprising, as we painting, there is a codied fear, which too live in revolutionary times: for the is a metaphor for revolution, stemming rst time in a generation British students from concerns about capitalism. have made meaningful protests that 1. C : , spilled over into civil unrest; the August v riots were unprecedented2. It has been argued that revolution is always global 1.1. T Bb and that if you look at France from 1750- In 1930 Francis ScoĴ Key Fitzgerald 1850 and Denmark from the same period, published Babylon Revisited in the wake it was Denmark that changed more. But of the Wall Street Crash (1929). would Denmark have changed so much A tale of boom and bust, about the debts one if it were not for the French Revolution? has to pay when the party comes to an end, In this context we cannot ignore the Arab it is a story with particular relevance for the Spring that preceded the British unrest: be way we live now [ ] Throughout Babylon in no doubt, we too live in revolutionary Revisited, Fitzgerald uses economic meta- 3 times . phors to underscore the idea that debts must In order to establish codied concerns be paid. The story reverberates with uncan- about capitalism, the fall of the British ny echoes or rather, anticipations of our Empire and of the French Revolution own era, the way in which we trusted that spreading to the UK, I will analyse John living on credit could last forever. What Martins Mesopotamian Blockbuster Fitzgerald shows us is the eěects that this trilogy. The popularity of these paintings mistake has not only on our economy, but establishes that there was a prevalent ap- on our characters: that money is the least of petite for such subject maĴer. I conjecture what we have to lose (Churchwell). that Martin exploited public fear of revo- Fitzgerald was by no means the rst lution, for commercial gain, through the to link the biblical Babylon with a con- metaphor of biblical apocalypse. temporary decline in moral values asso- I then explore contemporary exam- ciated with a love of money. John Martin ples of an apocalyptic aesthetic in order made three blockbuster paintings with- in a decade about the fall of civilisations 2 Not even the ToĴenham or Brixton riots of (referred to as the Mesopotamian Trilogy). 1985 were quite like it in terms of how the The rst, the Fall of Babylon, recounts the August riots spread around London and city from the Old Testament, which also then the country; the longevity of the riots; resurfaces as an apocalyptic warning in and the shockingly consumerist element. the book of Revelation. The wickedness 3 David Graeber argued this at Radical Pub- of Babylon is economic: it was a city that lishing: What Are We Struggling For? At con- ference at the ICA, London organised by fell because of its societys love of mon- Federico Campagna (2011). ey and therefore can be read as a warn- Capitalist Apocalypse in the Painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung 181 ing about capitalism. It is also seen as a ernment to take the threat of revolution warning for a city (or cities, or societies) seriously and the so-called Gagging Acts of the future, as the headquarters of the (clamping down on seditious meet- Beast. By John Martins time, London was ings and treason) were introduced regularly being referred to as the New the following year although this did Babylon (Feaver The Art of John Martin 44) more to cause the Cato Street Conspiracy and there was a concern that a decline in (which aimed to implement a French British moral values would lead to the fall style revolution starting with the as- of the British Empire. sassination of the cabinet) than it did to Martins time saw the transformation quell the revolutionary fever; by 1824, to Industrial Capitalism, under Hume when Martin was thirty-ve, he had lost and Smiths guiding theories, cause se- all his savings as his bank failed; from rious social unrest. AĞer victory in the 1830-32 there were the Reform Bill Riots Napoleonic Wars came a poor economic that ushered in a series of reforms start- state of aěairs: famine; high unemploy- ing with the First Reform Act (1832), ment; and boom and bust in the textiles the Factory Act, the Education Act (both industry, all of which was set against a 1833) and Poor Law Reform (1833). But in period of Regency excess. 1834 the Tolpuddle Martyrs were deport- As I intend to argue that John Martin ed to Australia simply for swearing an was inuenced by the harshness of in- oath to protect their wages. Around the dustrial capitalism and the revolution- same time Martin was struggling with ary times he lived in, it is worth noting cheap prints infringing his copyright; some of the examples of that occurred in his lifetime: from 1838-48 the Chartists, who become When Martin was ten years old the the rst mass working class movement Combination Act banned the formation for political reform, were active; also in 4 of trade unions; ten yeas aĞer Martin 1848, the year of revolutions Karl Marx moved to London he would have wit- published the Communist Manifesto (he nessed the Spa Field Riots noteworthy had met Engels in Paris, 1844) and from because one of the two main targets for 1845-6 there was the Irish Potato Famine. the Spenceans was the Bank of England Such political and economic events and because some ten thousand people must have had an impact on John Martin aĴended their meetings; three years lat- for whom Babylon was surely also a con- er, when Martin was thirty, the Peterloo Massacre occurred and, although the de- 4 Louis Philippe deposed in France, nation- mands of the protestors were for parlia- alist revolutions in Germany, Austria, mentary reform, the demands were fu- Switzerland, Denmark, Scleswig-Holstein, elled by the aforementioned economic Poland, Wallachia, Hungary, Brazil, and in Italy with Mazzini and Garibaldis stirring conditions exacerbated by the unpopu- of republican ideals the Risorgimento lar Corn Laws. Peterloo caused the gov- (see Morden 115) 182 Martin LANG temporary subject: biblical cities like 1.2. Bzz F Babylon and Nineveh had just been re- The second painting in the trilogy, discovered and were beginning to be ex- Belshazzars Feast, also dealt with the fall cavated for the rst time. While news of of Babylon and was a great commercial Claudius James Richs discoveries had success. The painting was exhibited at the reached Martin before he started making British Institution in 1821, winning a prize his Mesopotamian series, the Babylonian of 200 guineas. By public demand, the excavations of A.H. Laynard did not exhibition was extended for three weeks reach Britain until the 1840s, leaving and ve thousand people paid a shilling Martin to base his imagery on historical a head to see it. texts5 and to ll in the gaps with his imag- Compared to other painters of the ination.6 same subject,7 Martins compositions Martin made two versions of The Fall are withdrawn, distant, and focus on of Babylon.
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