A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us."
"If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?"
Franz Kafka
Maybe that’s true, too, in art.
The blaze which sets our hearts afire.
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment.”
Claude Monet
Though I take Kafka's negative image and reverse its effect--
concentrating on the festival of Life--
the brightest, most just, truest,
the good and best and beautifulest.
Here are several of my favorite paintings that woke me up:-)
Alley by the Lake
-Leonid Afremov
"Leonid Afremov ®(born 12 July 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus) is a Russian–Israeli modern impressionistic artist
who works mainly with a palette knife and oils."
"During the cold Russian winter, Afremov stayed at home painting. He was not allowed to participate
in government exhibitions because of his Jewish roots and was not allowed to be a member of the local art associations."
His early work was sold privately via family and friends and was not seen by many people. A lot of his work in the 1980’s was just given away for free."
"Between 1990 and 2002 he lived in Israel, [but] because he was a recent Russian immigrant, the locals considered his work as having little value."
"When Leonid confronted galleries about the extremely low prices, he always received the same answer: "you a Russian immigrant, you a new piece of junk, (sic) you have no choice."
Finally, Afremov moved to the United States, "from 2002 to 2010 in Boca Raton, Florida...currently resides in the popular resort town Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico, near Cancun...Most of his work is considered very colorful and politically neutral."
"I tried different techniques during my career, but I especially fell in love with painting with oil and pallette-knife. Every artwork is the result of long painting process; every canvas is born during the creative search; every painting is full of my inner world..."
"I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings."
"My heart is completely open to art...True art is alive and inspired by humanity...that art helps us to be free from aggression and depression.
"The artist invites to the world of simple beauty which constantly surrounds us, but we are too busy to stop for a moment and enjoy it."
https://afremov.com/Leonid-Afremov-bio.html
There is the wonder of explosive color by Marc Chagall in some of his paintings.
Yes,the vivid pageant of life and romantic love by Chagall, whose colorfest blazes wild in my heart.
Marc wrote of his future wife, Bella,
“I had only to open my window and blue air, love and flowers entered in with her.”
However, as we see in the news every day and throughout history, there is not
only the lively and romantic, but tragedy and hate.
Artists speak to that, too.
The Third of May 1808 (El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid) by Francisco Goya in 1814 showing the horror of the French/Spanish war.
Gurenica by Pablo Picasso, created to oppose the bombing of civilians in a Basque town by German planes supporting Francisco Franco
in the Spanish Civil War.
Let's close with a beautiful Impressionistic painting of a new dawn:
Impression Sunrise
by Claude Monet
And a communion meeting house for the Transcendent,
"SkySpace"
by James Turrell
and architect Leslie Elkins:
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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