The Living and the Dead (De levenden en de doden)

Vraag maar raak

• Alessia vroeg

  why are the living represented by striped hands?

• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen antwoordde

  Dear Alessia, Thank you for your question. 'Why' is always a difficult question, since the only one who could answer it would be the artist himself. Still, when you are looking at the painting, you see that The Dead are represented by fish skeletons which resemble human feet. The striped hands (The Living), on the other hand, resemble tropical fish. I could imagine that Philip West, who was born in the UK, lived in Venezuela and later Spain and was very much involved with nature, wants to tell something about our relationship to nature. KInd regards, Els