The Sacrifice of Isaac

Fred Webster

1983 - 1987

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Painting depicting the floods of Hurricane Katrina in shades of green. On the left is a young man in blue shorts and a yellow t-shirt that reads, "Bayou Classic" pulling a light-blue, deflated raft with an older woman seated on it, behind her is a younger woman holding onto her shoulders. On the right is a large boat with an American flag on the side, within which are three armed National Guardsmen in camouflage with bullet-proof vests and helmets. At their feet is a red cooler filled with food and drinks, the word FEMA written on the exterior. One of the seated Guardsmen is drinking a coke and the other is eating a sub sandwich. The young man in yellow is giving the middle finger to the Guardsmen and the young woman spits at them. In the background are two figures in the water waving for help and a group of flooded houses, with a father and two children emerging from one of them. In the foreground is a dead body floating in the water, shown with his tongue out and wearing a red and green plaid shirt.
This work was painted in animated marks that register as pattern and act to blur distinctions between the figures and their setting. Young has imposed compositional order through a stacked vertical arrangement that builds from urban structures to a row of elongated linear figures, a procession that does not so much carry the huge figure above them as celebrate his ascension into the mountains at the top of the image.
Flag bears the traditional "veve" pattern of the "loa" Damballah. Depicts two snakes, with an egg between them. Two leafy plants flank the snakes, and flag is bordered by alternating red and blue triangles.
Tiny with Veil, Mary Ellen Mark, gelatin silver print