Loneliness with the World | pseudo-abstract surrealism

Loneliness with the World | pseudo-abstract surrealism

Loneliness with the World

Here is what the author says about this picture: "Alone with all the world is not a digital image of computer work, it's one of the last paintings made on canvas & oil in 1993 in St. Petersburg. I believe that this work is one of my most successful paintings. I call the approach to it as a pseudo-abstract surrealism or experimental over-realism. You must have noticed how difficult it is sometimes to understand the subject matter, idea of the work of some authors. How mysteriously the set of pictorial symbols and elements of their pictures looks. In this case I decided to go from the opposite direction, and to collect on the canvas a surrealistic symbolism that all together has no meaning. The picture was originally conceived as completely abstract-meaningless in essence, but at the same time contains strong visual items composed of meaningful visual content. That gives the viewer a free flight of fantasy to discover, open the picture content according to one's "own" taste. To make conclusions about what this is all about - based on their personal, emotional, intellectual, and psychological experience. Every person is different. Hence the tip of the name of the work is loneliness with the whole world. Despite the large number of people, we are still alone in our inner worlds.

The symbolic elements of the picture have a strong visual energy for the viewer. These are a fading image on the background of an ancient, cracked wall, and a tiny door in front of a standing man. The door leads to the massive building without windows. The giant sculpted head of the ancient Roman emperor stands out from the deep shadow and glows with vivid eyes. It is also a sculptural finger indicating the direction of upward movement. The figure of a standing person with his back turned to us immediately raises questions: Why? What does he do? What is he plotting? Is he going to enter this door or just stopped for a moment? Although, all these mysteriously intriguing questions are just, I cannot answer them. And I never intended to. This work is for each viewer individually. Find your meaning, your understanding, your vision. Once again I repeat it was just a visual experiment for me. I decided to include this picture in the exhibition of digital media, as a tribute to all my previous artistic experiments. I will not say that I never go back to traditional painting and drawing. Who knows? I'm quite pleased with where I'm creatively for now." George Grie 2017

Here is how one of the viewers describes the work: "I understand the reason for his loneliness. It is primarily personal, because he does not have a beloved woman. It seems to me that her image was so subtly reflected on the facade by the artist. She is constantly present in his thoughts, memory, and the dreams. Maybe she is not in this world any more ... Maybe she's far from him ... there are different versions possible, but in his life there is not. In the space of the picture he is surrounded by stone objects. There is a colossal sculpture (even two of them in the picture), and an old building with a solid wall which plaster and paint are showered. They suppress a person; make him insignificant, uncertain, and unnecessary in their environment. His loneliness becomes even more obvious. The stone jungles of the city, as they say sometimes, and in the picture there is not a single blade of grass or anything else. The main focus is she, and even a stone hand points to this reflective image of his woman. The place he is going to enter is likely his emotional world, the inner dome, the virtual entry. Before entering into it, he takes out the keys from his pocket. Opens the door, no one is waiting for him there. And now I had a thought when he disappears in the depths of this portal, the woman portrait on the wall will melt, disappear and relocate to his room. Because he created it long time ago in his thoughts and they are tightly connected with each other." M.M. Windstar 2017

May 1993, oil on canvas, St. Petersburg, signed by Yuri Gribanovsky.
Private collection.