043THE FIGURE IN ARTI’m creating something, I’m there with
the clay, and after a while something
begins to build. One of the good things
is creating something that you’ve never
seen before.”
Serge Marshennikov is also concerned
with his materials and strives to make
something “real” out of paint. “To
praise a photorealist painter that he
copied nature well is like praising an
oil painting for being made with oil.
An artist’s goal is always the same—the
creation of an image that shows emotion
and that transfers the painter’s feelings
to the viewer.”
The young women in his paintings
are draped in diaphanous materials
or their own clothing, revealing their
physical bodies in poses the artist finds
unique to them as individuals. Their calm
composure reveals something of their
inner selves. The figure in the painting In
the Twilight clutches a thin wrap at her
breast, appearing to be wearing an Empiregown. In the soft light she appears about
to melt into the background.
Kevin Francis Gray’s figures are
anonymous beneath their veils. The
Temporal Sitter, 2011, is in contrast to
Saint-Gaudens’ meditating bodhisattva.
He is, indeed, temporal, in and of this
world. His hands slacken from the
traditional mudra of meditation and he
distractedly turns his head. Rather than
seeking the non-self, he actively hides
from us and from himself.6