Georges Seurat at Work

What is civilization's greatest triumph?

I know that's a rather heady question to pose on a Wednesday morning, but bear with me. I'm going somewhere here.

What does it mean to be civil? nbsp; For me, the attributes of courtesy, aesthetics, education and artistic expression come to mind. 

The height of civility and the culmination of all the above-mentioned attributes presented themselves to me one day a few years ago as I spent my birthday with my girlfriend in Balboa Park.

San Diego's Balboa Park, an exemplary urban refuge

Balboa Park is exemplary of those magnificent urban refuges that all great cities possess. It is an alluring amalgam of public meetings, museums, lectures, concerts, plays, reflecting ponds, rolling meadows, statues, planetariums, arboretums, organ pavilions, outstanding architecture, rose gardens, fountains, plazas, jugglers and mimes.

Balboa Park is a place where two lovers can lounge on the grass; where a scholar can read poetry while a botanist browses through an ornate collection of rare flowers. One might stop along the colonnades to listen to a string quartet or appreciate the colorful qualities of a Niki de St. Phalle sculpture while strolling under the Jacaranda trees on the way to a Shakespeare festival.

So what is my point exactly? I'm arguing that metropolitan parklands are civilization's greatest triumph, the pinnacle of refined and elevated living. 

Seurat's masterpiece: Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

The band Chicago captures such essence in their song, "Saturday in the Park." (People dancing, people laughing. A man selling ice cream, singing italian songs...)

It may be fair to say that no painter captured the idyllic elements, the relaxed and easy couture of public park weekends quite like Georges Seurat. He was a French artist who is largely credited with founding the movement known as neo-impressionism.

Also referred to as Chromoluminarism, Divisionism or Pointillism, neo-impressionism essentially involves the breakdown of colors into their basic elements by artists painting in a pattern of small dots. From a distance the multiple dots form an optical mixture of color.

Seurat's painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, is often referred to as the definitive example of neo-impressionism and is often credited by art critics as among the most remarkable and groundbreaking paintings of the 19th Century.  For me, it also captures that sense of civil community, the public park utopia that brings out the best in humanity and connotes mankind at leisure amid scenic and harmonious trappings.

The island of Ile de la Grand Jatte, by the way, is bounded by the Seine River in Paris. For several years it was an industrial site before the French converted it into a public garden. Seurat spent two years there, studying the bucolic landscape and painting numerous preliminary drawings. He would sit in the park and sketch various figures, mastering their form and shading before progressing to his masterpiece.

Seurat's drawings themselves are today treasured as fine objets d'art. 

"Once described as 'the most beautiful painter's drawings in existence,' Georges Seurat's mysterious and luminous works on paper played a crucial role in his short, vibrant career," according to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.