uni posca on paper on wood / 29,5 x 41,7 cm. / 2010
after: ʻTHE KNIGHT WITH HIS HAND ON HIS CHESTʼ, El Greco - 1585, Prado, Madrid, Spain.
Born in Crete, El Greco (1541-1614) started his career as a classical Byzantine icon painter. He followed this with a classical training in the high Renaissance style of Venice and Rome. It wasnʼt until he moved to Toledo, however, that his career took off and his signature style developed. El Greco pushed painting beyond the realism of the Renaissance to a more austere, spiritual representation – his figures becoming elongated and distorted, his colours and contrasts heightened beyond conventional acceptability. It was 20th Century modernists, such as Picasso, that rediscovered his relevance.
after: ʻSPANISH WOMAN WITH A TAMBORINEʼ, Henri Matisse - 1909, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia.
Together with Picasso, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the great innovators of the last century. The contrast could not have been starker, for, while Picasso painted conflict and restlessness, Matisse painted quietness and peace. Matisse often painted his models dressed in traditional southern Mediterranean costume. The arabesque patterns within the textiles allowed him to explore new constructive and visually sensual possibilities, whilst also introducing decorative elements, as an intrinsic part of the overall compositions of his paintings.