William Congdon

Black City on Gold River, 1949, Ink, oil, and enamel on masonite, 96 x 78 cm, William G. Congdon Foundation, Buccinasco, Italy; © William G. Congdon; Photo Courtesy The William G. Congdon Foundation

Dark’s Light

Commentary by Gabriel Torretta, O.P.

Cite Share
Read by Ben Quash

The first moments flowing from the vocation of Jeremiah are dark and cold: ‘Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land’ (Jeremiah 1:14), and ‘every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah’ (v.15), and ‘I will utter my judgments against them’ (v.16). A long night has settled upon the land, and God plunges Jeremiah into its midst. He offers him no great weapons, no masterful rhetoric, no earthly patron.

New York City, 1948. William Congdon, a young artist who has fought in World War II and seen concentration camps firsthand—leading him to a bitter rejection of his Puritan upbringing—experiences an artistic conversion. Drawn into the orbit of Jackson Pollock, he leaves behind the Classical Realism of his artistic training and embraces Abstract Expressionism, turning the cityscape around him into impastoed canvases heaped with paint, violently and endlessly scored with an awl.

A year later, a pattern seems somehow to have crept into his mind, working itself out in an unintentional series of paintings. The city begins to appear as a monstrous dying form, bleeding from a thousand wounds. In this 1949 work, the black mass of the city seethes and writhes, struggling even in its death throes to swallow the river, to blot out the sky. Its bulk overwhelms the canvas, seeming to press the sky against the upper edges of the composition. Yet somehow, cruelly burdened and partially obscured, one light still shines: a disc of gold.

Jeremiah’s prophetic vocation is born in darkness, the gloom of the people’s ‘wickedness in forsaking me’, their burning ‘incense to other gods’, their worshipping ‘the works of their own hands’ (v.16). The people of God will be driven out, overwhelmed, and pressed out of their land. The holy city will die from within, its glorious life swallowed up and blotted out by the consuming death of idolatry and sin. But this prophet, who will be mocked, ignored, and beaten, is given to the people of Judah to be an unquenchable disc of gold: ‘for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you’ (v.19).

 

References

Congdon, William. 1962. In My Disc of Gold: Itinerary to Christ (New York: Reynal & Company)

See full exhibition for Jeremiah 1

Jeremiah 1

Revised Standard Version

1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiʹah, of the priests who were in Anʹathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiʹah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3It came also in the days of Jehoiʹakim the son of Josiʹah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiʹah, the son of Josiʹah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

6Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7but the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;

for to all to whom I send you you shall go,

and whatever I command you you shall speak.

8Be not afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord.”

9Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

10See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a rod of almond.” 12Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

13 The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” 14Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15For lo, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they shall come and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 16And I will utter my judgments against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. 17But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. 18And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. 19They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.”

More Exhibitions