METAPHORICAL JOURNEY
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37 x 94 INCHES
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The cold, blue-green color pallet of this painting creates an uneasy mood as one would encounter when leaving home, and only the sun, reddening in the distant clouds is reminiscent of the comfort of the abandoned home. Somewhat displaced from the present, static figures of people similar to marionettes help to amplify the loneliness and what could be described as the frigidness of space.
The home is something constant and stable, being preserved in the consciousness of the artist through all of his travels (parents’ home or domicile). Conversely, the wind embodied in the form of a waving shirt is associated with anxiety, with powerful chaotic forces and the removal from one’s home.
At the same time, the concept of the Four Winds, like coordinates in space, are characteristic of the mythologies of different countries. In this case, home is the point of origin. The wind-shirt metaphor defines the pursuits of the artist- his odyssey, including departure and arrival.
A little oak leaf tore off from its branch
Was driven o’er the steppe by a cruel gale…- Mikhail Lermontov
The painting is built accordingly: the waving shirt reminds one of a sail, and the house - a ship.
Leaves on the pond, already cold
Look like little colored ships
And they remind us that it’s time
To sail away to distant shores.
The wind symbolizes breath and is related to God (for example, god of wind in Sandro Botticelli’s painting, Birth of Venus) In Hindu tradition, space originates from the soul, wind comes from space, and fire and light come from the wind.
