This piece of art work is titled Dying. The Artist, Alex Grey, is a modern day visionary. He creates art that shows the universal image of the human being. He creates his art by a combination of meditative techniques and entheogenic substances to achieve visionary levels of consciousness . He then translates that to his art.
"Death and Dying." Erowid, Sept. 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2009.
I was first introduced to this work through the band Tool. Alex Grey does the art work for Tool. Alex Grey makes art about subjects that greatly interest me and his art shows a level of universal depth that really is not seen in most contemporary pieces.
The subject expressed is death and the departure from the body. The painting depicts the final veil of life being lifted as the being departs from the body. The artist chose to use a perspective that implies the being is moving toward the infinite and the unknown. While one could infer plenty from this depiction the subject matter is one that is impossible to truly know.
This piece of art is very instrumental in understanding Death and the process of dying and thus viewing this piece of art one would most certainly use the instrumental theory.
This piece of art does not exclusively share with any particular culture or tradition as it is meant to depict the universal nature of death and its relation to humanity.
-Eric Geller
I really like how his art is universal. It's good to hear about someone who goes out of their way to appeal to all people, maybe in attempt to connect us all through one piece of art or whatever the artist is creating.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is interesting. I feel that it can mean many different things. I believe the artist's intention of this piece could have been to envoke conversation between it's viewers about religion and dying just as we did in class! good job eric!
ReplyDeleteI did not know exactly what to think when I first saw this piece of art. I think that depending on who is looking at it, this piece of art could have many different meanings. In my opinion I think it has a lot to do with religion. I think that the man in the center has died, and the eyes surrounding him are the people that are now watching over him, and joining him on his journey to heaven. I think that the light at the top of this piece symbolizes this man making his way into heaven. But that is only my interpretation, because this piece of art could be taken many different ways depending on the person looking at it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by the fact that the artist didn't paint the skin of the subject - you mentioned in class that this is to make the art more universal. That there is a concept of an afterlife in almost every culture also augments the ability of the piece to resonate with any viewer.
I really like the flow of the piece; the contrast immediately draws me to the light and then the subject. I then naturally progress to looking at the ascending, disembodied "soul" object between the subject and the light. Finally I study the rest of the picture, and it comes together nicely for me.
I don't think the piece would appeal to strict proponents of the mimetic perspective, but I think any of the other three perspectives (!) could see value in the piece. Instrumentalists could note that the painting shows how we're all equal in death; an emotionalist could see the art as evoking any number of emotions associated with death (especially solemness or tranquility); formalists would likely be pleased by the symmetry (of the eye pattern) and the overall contrast (not only color contrast, but the use of symmetry in some areas and not others) of the piece.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
-Carl
(Fixed some errors with the last post)