Ghost Dance (The Vision of Life)

Ralph Albert Blakelocks Ghost Dance (The Vision of Life) from 1895-97 is an oil painting that exemplifies the American landscape painters visionary approach to the nocturnal landscape, in which the natural world is transformed into a dreamlike realm of mysterious light and ambiguous space. Blakelock, who spent years painting moonlit landscapes that sold for modest prices while he descended into poverty and mental illness, produced a body of work that is remarkable for its atmospheric intensity and its ability to suggest psychological states through the manipulation of light, color, and space. The title Ghost Dance refers to the Native American religious movement of the late 19th century, in which practitioners believed that through ritual dance they could communicate with the spirits of the dead and bring about the restoration of their traditional way of life. Blakelock, who was fascinated by Native American culture and had lived among various tribes, may have intended the painting as a depiction of a Ghost Dance ceremony, or the title may refer more generally to the visionary quality of the landscape itself, in which the moonlit forms of trees and terrain seem to dissolve into the ghostly light that emanates from within the painting. The oil on canvas medium, applied in the thick impasto and dark glazes that distinguish Blakelocks best work, creates a surface that appears to absorb and emit light simultaneously, giving the nocturnal landscape a luminosity that transcends the conventional limitations of moonlight painting.

Blakelocks nocturnal landscapes are among the most original works in American painting, and their influence on the development of Tonalism, Symbolism, and the broader tradition of visionary landscape extends through the 20th century. Ghost Dance influenced the development of American landscape painting as a vehicle for psychological expression.

An oil painting by Blakelock from 1895-97 titled Ghost Dance, transforming the nocturnal landscape into a visionary realm of mysterious light and ambiguous space through thick impasto and dark glazes that suggest both the Native American religious ceremony and psychological visionary states.