The current Manuel Palacio exhibition in the Onions Gallery at the Bermuda Society of Arts brings to mind the 19th century French realist painter, Gustave Courbet. When I asked Mr. Palacio about his influences, however, Courbet was not amongst the names mentioned. Those he did name were Georgia O'Keefe, Claude Monet and Bermudian artist, John Kaufmann and certainly their impact on Mr. Palacio is obvious, especially in this exhibition. Still, the underlying affect of Courbet on Manuel Palacio's approach to art making, is significant. Even if Palacio were to say the contrary, the impact of Courbet, who is considered amongst the first avant garde artists, underlies, perhaps unconsciously, much of what he creates.

In conversation, I asked Mr. Palacio what he thought of Courbet. His response was that he admired his nudes. I see a greater impact than just admiration of this particular genre, however. Gustave Courbet burst on the Paris art scene in 1850 with his gigantic and shocking, Burial at Ornans. This almost 12 by about 19 foot canvas, depicts the funeral of a French farmer, who was one of Courbet's relatives. When it was first exhibited, it was considered shocking by many, for paintings of this scale were usually reserved for events or persons of great importance.

Courbet's 1855, the Painter's Studio was the cause of further consternation. In this painting, the artist shows a contemporary studio scene, in which a group of well dressed citizens confront a nude model, while Courbet is sitting at his easel painting a landscape. Generally, before this, nudes were depicted in the guise of classical gods or goddesses, so to exhibit a modern woman as nude was, indeed, shocking. Furthermore, the fact that Courbet has turned away from her, is symbolic of his removing himself from the Academy, where the depiction of the nude was a standard subject for students. Shock was Courbet's modus operandi. Shock art was his primary political weapon.

Despite his shock tactics, it has to be admitted that Courbet was a bold and skilful artist whose influence on the early French Impressionists was profound. His method of applying paint to canvas was often by means of the palette knife, a tool that traditionally was used for mixing paint on the palette, not for applying paint to canvas. Everything he did was done with boldness, even confrontational. In the end, his shock tactics landed him in deep political trouble. He ended his days in self-imposed exile in Switzerland. He had stepped beyond what the the French authorities would tolerate. He even spent six months in prison, for his political and artistic efforts.

Much of what I have written about Courbet, can be said of Manual Palacio. Shock art is also his primary approach to art making. Additionally, in this current exhibition, the palette knife is often his tool of first choice, as well. Regarding his shock tactics; Palacio has not yet gone to prison; he has had, however, the honour of having his art confiscated by the police. This brings up an observation. Shock art, if that is the primary reason for art making, is, in the end, a dead-end. We humans have the tendency to accommodate to shock, so much so, practitioners of shock art, need to always be upping the ante, in order to continuing shocking. In the end, shock artists will either paint or sculpt themselves into a corner or step beyond the law and go to gaol. It would be an interesting study to find out which artists, have been imprisoned for their art. I recall the names of several.

An example of how shock art eventually becomes tolerable to the general public, can be found in several, somewhat salacious sculptures in the current Palacio show. Most are at least a decade old and when first exhibited, caused quite a stir. Today we walk past them and wonder why they seemed once so disturbing.

One significant piece of art in the Palacio show, is a painting entitled Camden. It pictures the large trunk of a poinciana tree growing in the grounds at Camden. The underlying model for this painting is a 1934 drawing in the Masterworks Museum's collection of the trunk of a banyan tree by Georgia O'Keefe. The original drawing is in graphite, the painting, by contrast, is highly textured oil paint, which took considerable time to create, given the slow drying time of oil paint and the fact that this painting is made-up of numerous paint layers. There is even sand imbedded within the paint, to increase its texture. Palacio's tree appears almost as flesh, and although obviously a tree trunk, still. it can also be read as some kind of surreal entanglement of human limbs.

Next, to the right of Camden is another painting modeled on the floral paintings of Georgia O'Keefe. In this instance, it is a highly enlarged portrayal of a bougainvillea flower. Unlike the tree trunk, this painting is notable for thin scumbles of paint over white canvas. This allows the paint to take on a certain glow, creating a sense of translucency.

Along the west wall there is a series of beach scenes entitled the Breaker Series. These are inspired by the beach paintings of John Kaufmann. Although the Kaufmann link is there to see, Palacio has made use of impastos of paint, often applied with a palette knife. This recalls the seascapes of Courbet, who also used a palette knife in depicting the sea and waves. To heighten the texture, the artist has, again mixed sand in his paint, which he has applied to those parts of the painting representing the beach, rather than water.

Manuel Palacio is in love with oil paint, built up, slathered with a palette knife in appropriate areas of the canvas. An example of this is his representation of oleanders in a painting called, Summer, which he says is inspired by the paintings of Claude Monet and in some ways I can see that this is the case, although I do not recall Monet using such thick lumps of paint. This, I am told, is one of the artists more recent creations. Near-by is a painting called Blue Green, in which the artist takes a similar approach to applying paint. Of these two, Summer is the more successful. Blue Green is one of the older works in the show and the thickly built-up paint, has dried to a mat finish, that now looks fairly old and scabby.

National Treasure-Gombeys 1, is the largest painting in the show and therefore the most conspicuous. It depicts a Gombey troupe, peacock feathers and all, in the midst of a frenetic dance. Although the Gombey is such a traditional Bermudian phenomena, it is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to picture it in an authentic manner, for the Gombey as subject, has now largely replaced the pink cottage as the cliche of choice by Bermuda's artists. National Treasure, unfortunately, does not stand out as being all that unusual, original or authentic, even given its size

The exhibition consisted of 20 works of art, four being bronze sculptures. The rest were large oil paintings. The exhibition ended on August 31.