Dear Dr DK Matai, thank you for bringing those sweet memories back, both from the years spent in London and St Petersburg...

Zurbaran has always been among my favorite painters and the image of the 'St Francis in Meditation' at the NG is one of the most striking pieces of the artist's many variations on the theme (of the Saint from Assisi). There is another one in the collection in the same room and almost of the same format but somewhat different in mood, with the diagonal composition of the figure leaning in prostration in a moving gesture with an open palm, as if addressing the Almighty in a direct manner.

See the image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Francisco_de_Zurbar%C3%A1n_009.jpg),

From the handling of the paint one can conclude both pieces were painted at around the same time. Though I agree with Dr Matai the pictured version is an image way more powerful. The composition is simple and almost theatrical, with the subject being brought forward to the edge of the frame, as in attempt to brake the safe boundary between the image and the viewer, the method often used by the Renaissance masters to reinforce the immediacy of an impact... In this case a viewer, being placed in the position of a sudden intruder of the most intimate moment, has little choice but to surrender to the experience and to join the saint in his ecstatic moment of contemplation. The magical serenity of the figure and its monumental, almost sculptural quality, being shaped by the moon-like quality of light, and the control of an overall tonality is simply stupendous for it gives one an impression of being submerged into the coolness of the mystical atmosphere depicted by the painter.

My first incountered with Zurbaran goes back to the student years at The Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. Where I got to know the artist intimately while copying the old masters at The Hermitage, which has only few Zurbarans, but of exceptional quality. A few years later already living in London and frequenting the National Gallery on the weekly basis I got hooked on that image of 'St Francis in Meditation'. Since than I saw a great deal of Zurbaran's work above all at the Prado in Madrid, and I am convinced that Zurbaran was a painter of extraordinary depth, capable of invoking a truly religious feeling (in a spiritual sense of the word), through the images which are as powerful in their simplicity as they are delicate in the painterly sense. For me the painting of St Francis in Meditation is a Christian answer to the art of Zen, the supreme directness in the art of image-making.

As far as Alison Watt, she is a dedicated artist with a body of work behind her. Yet I would refrain to comment on her work, mainly because from a computer screen ( even of the latest Mac ) those images look more like an exercise in interior decoration, perhaps attractive to look at, yet too remote for a more meaningful engagement. Yet it could be the shortcomings of the technology, after all a real painting is difficult to reproduce. Just to say Alison project came about as the result of being 'artist in residence' at the NG of London. For those who don't know, it's a tradition established in 1989 by Neil MacGregor, the previous director of the NG ( notorious for declining the Knighthood ), whereby a living artist is given two year of tenure at the premises of the NG to come up with a body of work hopefully inspired by the culture of old masters. It used to be the only high profile venue in the country independent from the otherwise heavily subjected to the fashionable trends and economical forces of the art market. Neil MacGregor left to run The British Museum, let us hope National Gallery would still remain its independent status of what is known as ''Cool Britannia'', which fast becoming too cool for its own good.

It's immodest to use these page for self-promotion, but I wanted to share my own past encounters with Zurbaran. For after I've left the Art Academy I spent few years improvising in different styles until my arrival to London, which brought about the disappointment in the direction art took in the last quoter of the 20th century. The decision to come back to the human figure and to a more traditional way of working was a conscious act, mirroring what was taking place deep inside. So at times I allowed myself a direct allusions to the effects of chiaroscuro thinking of the spanish master. Here is a link to the painting, a large version of St Sebastian I did about 14 years ago:

Heroes theme page: http://www.igorkufayev.com/theme3.html
St Sebastian page: http://www.igorkufayev.com/theme3_files/c5w-big.html

I find it so generous of you to share beauty with us. Thank you! All visual art, poetry, music and everything the human being has ever created is an expression of the divine flow, allowed with more or less abandon. Isn't this what we all strive for, to be life flowing with abandon?

Thank you Aurora, I like that: Life flowing with abandon. You know even this chair I just got is so compfortable and pretty, no backache
and all that, pure expression of the divine flow... makes the flowing so mcuh easier. With Love. igor

Round

If you just happen to look up
at the sky
on any given day,
preferably
on a sleepy summer’s Mayan-blue day
will you notice how unimaginably white the clouds are
when your eyes meet,
above the coronation arcades of pine trees.
bowing to a forlorn wind,
above pencil poles where
pigeons gather and sit, defending their pigeon-lives
under a cacophony of coos,
above the seven-gabled houses painted like ladies
in their Easter Sunday best?

do you ever get the feeling that the world
is really two-dimensional, quite flat,
a flatbread of Eastern descent,

a canvas being painted by an unknown hand?

did you ever get the feeling
that the roundness comes
with each breath the artist takes?

~a

annaruiz
Apr 30, 2008
Poetry Chaikhana
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=4889