Many artists take inspiration from their travels, but Benjamin Sack found a unique way to make his way around the world. For the past decade, Sack has been an artist-in-residence on a Holland American cruise ship. This unique opportunity allows him to soak in architectural details from cities worldwide, which he then incorporates into his detailed pen drawings.
Sack first approached Holland America—a company known for its round-the-world cruises—after he finished university. He pitched a unique idea: an “artist residency” where he’d give drawing classes and lectures to passengers on art related to the ports of call. He also offered to create a large cartographic-style drawing to commemorate the voyage.
“Long story short, they loved the idea and welcomed me aboard, saying it would only happen this one year. Ten years later, I'm now the court artist to King Neptune himself,” he jokingly tells My Modern Met.
Sack now has his own artist studio on board the ship, where he works on his drawings inspired by the journeys around Africa, South America, Antarctica, and beyond. “I'm lucky in that the room comes with a view that's ever changing,” he says. “Perhaps it’s the best art studio in the world.” At the end of each voyage, he presents the final drawing to the passengers and crew.
The artist meets people from all over the world and from all walks of life while on the ship. “As the ship is very much a city at sea, I feel like a Court Artist of sorts,” he says. “My position onboard is unique in that I'm kind of in the gray zone between passenger and crew member. I have access to both worlds, much like how art is in the real world where all practices and divisions in society overlap.”
Sack captures the incredible scale and complexity of his journeys, as well as the intricate details that define each monochrome place. His unique situation is woven into all of his drawings. The gentle swaying of the ship inevitably influences the lines he draws with his fine liners. His large-scale drawings feature dizzying details, such as architectural renderings that encapsulate the microcosm of a city. Each piece is reminiscent of the mind-bending lithographs and etchings of M. C. Escher.
The rich details of the cities he visits are also omnipresent in his designs. Florence, in particular, is a favorite destination, and its iconic Duomo has been incorporated into many drawings. “Architecture is merely music frozen in time,” Sack poetically articulates. “It also can represent the human form in a myriad of ways, physically (as per the roman architect Vitruvius) and metaphorically: the body is a temple…So, in essence, each building is a character, portrait, or even a note assembled in a symphony of movement and form.”
Sack spends anywhere from a few months to half a year at sea and loves the adventure that awaits him. These adventures weave into his monumental drawings, which are rife with detail. From the regal architecture of Japan's Himeji Castle to the sleek modern buildings on Singapore's Marina Bay, his works are a magical mirror of world architecture.
“On land, the drawings are fixed to the studio. On the ship, the studio travels, and the drawing literally records the movement of a journey around the planet—as I draw lines, a little bit of the ship’s movement is recorded; this slight nuance repeated a thousand times breathes a whole different spirit into the work,” he shares. “Through my stateroom window, sunsets and sunrises depending on the ship's trajectory from every time zone break across the drawing. Each year, I find the drawings become richer and richer. It's magic!”
Artist Benjamin Sack has spent the last decade as an artist-in-residence on a Holland America cruise ship.
This makes his art studio completely unique.
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He then weaves his travel adventures into his monumental pen drawings.
Reminiscent of old cartographical drawings, they give an aerial view of cities around the world.
