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This
semi-representational painting can be approached in two ways: as
an attempt to identify and analyze the symbolic meaning of the
semi-representational objects presented or as an interplay of
colors and geometrical shapes without any reference to their
potential signification. In the second case whatever is lost in
objectivity and immediacy of depiction is offset or I would say
even gained in richness of imagination and sensory associations.
The ambiguity of depictions lifts all constrains and limitations
placed on our routine sensory perceptions and at the same
challenges us to be as Wilde put it 'more artistic' and raise
ourselves to the message of the painting.
Pursuing the elusive identification of objects
represented, our first of the two ways of analysis, we see a
biological world in all its diversity. The painting is 'framed' in
all four corners by biological scenes: In the lower left-hand
corner a yellow fish with a black eye is
surging upward while in the upper left-hand corner a red larva
emerges from its black cocoon. Similar scenes me in the upper
right and lower right corners. It appears that from all four
corners nature in its more advanced forms is spewing life into the
middle of the painting enclosed by straight and zigzag black
lines.
In the middle of the painting is a multi-colored
figure resembling a human embryo with an eye and barely outlined
limbs-the synthesis and culmination of all creation. From the
narrative point of view the painting presents a process of
biological evolution with the human embryo incorporating all the
previous stages of larvae and fishes preceding it and occupying
the central position where all four corners converge.
If we consider the painting from the second point of view in which
we disregard objective representation and consider the work as a
totality of lines and colors, we will notice a transition from the
narrative and semi representational plane to an abstract system
which consists of rectangles, triangles, squares, semi-circles,
arrows, zigzags, curved lines and horn forms. This is an inanimate
system of images which contrasts with an animate. The objective
representational and semi representational world is here
transcended, the connection with the animate world is severed and
a new reality is opened up Kandinsky's words me applicable here.
An abstract artist listens to nature's voices and follows them in
creating a painting. Kandinsky introduces a synaesthetic
dimension, a connection between auditory and perceptual sense. The
conclusion is that we me unable to truly understand a painting by
using our rational ability and visual perception alone. If
paintings are to be seen as well as heard then we should have the
recourse of relying on all our senses and giving up our
predilection for rational comprehension and let the painting open
up while we stay passive and alert at the same time. Visually the
painting presents a progression from chaos and disorder to a
semblance of stability and order. Musically the analogy is of a
random assembly of discordant notes, jelling into a few concordant
patterns. What emerges in this painting is a totality of the
animate and inanimate world, a moment in the history of creation. |
