Southernization of an Irishman
/John Briggs
1982
American, b. 1948
Oil and pastel on canvas
Gift of the artist
Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 1992.7
John Briggs presents us an oversized postcard, filled with figures and creatures of varying scales set along the narrow shoreline of a South Florida beach, ascertained from the hints the artist provides us in the text that frames the painting. While making the painting no less enigmatic to the viewer, Briggs supplies us with a starting point from which to imagine the storyline. Inspired by Irish writer James Joyce’s novels Ulysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and by Joyce’s literary alter-ego Stephen Dedalus, Briggs uses his own visage for the central “Stephen Dedalus” figure in this “Southernized” retelling of Ulysses. But without Joyce’s text to guide us, it is up to each viewer to piece together the rest of the tale. Briggs has given us so much to work with, as we envision the backstories of each figure and try to determine what everyone is doing. Who are the women entering at left? Who is the man high up in the grass? Whose dog is that following the central figure — whose own sunglasses and walking stick offer us another significant piece of information about him — and is that alligator about to take a very painful bite of that barely-clad woman? And what is that winged form up the sky at top right? Moreover, what does this “Southernization of an Irishman” entail? The narrative possibilities are endless.