Aloha, John E. Buck

Artwork Overview

John E. Buck, Aloha
John E. Buck, Aloha
John E. Buck
Aloha
1978
John E. Buck
born 1946
Aloha, 1978
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: paint; wood
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 2745 x 3355 x 610 mm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 108 1/16 x 132 1/16 x 24 1/2 in
Credit line: Gift of Professors Raymond and Elizabeth Goetz and Family
Accession number: 1991.0149.a-u
Not on display
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Label texts

Archive Label: In Aloha John Buck alludes to the ancient and tragic love affair between Caesar, Emperor of Rome, and Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Rather than creating a strictly naturalistic representation, Buck uses symbols that refer to the climactic final episodes of the story. During their affair, animosities between Rome and Egypt made travel dangerous. So, for a journey to visit Caesar, Cleopatra was hidden rolled up in a carpet. Asps, poisonous snakes, were symbols of Egyptian royalty. The asps in this sculpture refer to Cleopatra’s suicide from the snake’s fatal bits. Aloha is Hawaiian, meaning both “hello” and “good-bye.” Meaning “hello,” aloha expresses Cleopatra’s clandestine arrival in Rome to meet Caesar. Meaning “good-bye,” aloha symbolizes the declining Egyptian Empire as well as Cleopatra’s own tragic end.

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 14 Jan-2005, Patrick Musick, Docent I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. John Buck’s 1978 sculpture, “Aloha,” is a large, cartoon like composition of painted wood cutouts. In Hawaiian, aloha means both hello and goodbye. But what is the meaning of this curious assembly of a man’s head wreathed in olive branches, a Roman arch surrounded by hands holding daggers, a pyramid, a scythe, and a rolled up carpet with a snake wrapped around it? The man with the olive wreath is Julius Caesar, honored for his military victories by entering Rome through a triumphal arch. The knives refer to his murder by Roman senators, made famous by Shakespeare’s play. The pyramid represents Egypt, and the scythe, the rich farm lands along the Nile River. As for the carpet and the snake, one story says that Cleopatra was presented to Caesar rolled up in a carpet which servants unrolled to reveal her to him. And most everyone knows that Cleopatra later did herself in with the bite of an asp. So, Buck’s sculpture refers to Caesar entering Rome in triumph and then murdered, Cleopatra introducing herself to Caesar and then committing suicide. Hello and goodbye? Aloha! With thanks to Patrick Musick for his text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.