Plato's Cave Painting

„Plato's Cave” Author's description: „This work is an allegory on the relationship between man and reality,with an emphasis on the artist,the man of culture,in a society in which the perverting of political power,false values,lies and the rush for money have taken the place of true virtues. In the language specific to visual art,I tried to make a plea for knowledge,for that metaphysical knowledge based on the pure , analytical intellect and on reason. Thought has brought me in front of the myth of Plato 's cave ,because people ,regardless of the age they live in,are still prisoners of illusions, prejudges,beliefs, more or less artificial. The mosaic of seemingly illogical images that make up the compositional elements of the painting,reconstitue the play of lights and shadows projected on the cave walls imagined by Plato.They have a real identity,accessible to the senses,but also a significance to be discovered in the light of the intellect in order to acquire that quality of "orthe doxa" (true knowledge) As a metaphor of idealism,the cave that I have imagined is the world of the apparent reality which ,as long as it is enveloped by darkness,that is to say by the ignorance specific to the incult ,limited man,keeps him prisoner and stops his evolution. The horse rider from the painting,animated by high ideals is a mixture of idealism and justice spirit ,something between Don Quijote and Don Diego de la Vega,alias Zorro .On his strange horse he tries to escape from the darkness of the cave, to nourish himself with light ,then spread it everywhere, freeing the prisoners from the chains they venerate even if they limit their initiatic way. As man's soul is immortal,temporarily imprisoned in a material body,he carries in itself that sensitive latent Freud was speaking about. The knowledge through anamnesis( through remembering) somehow directs us to the world of Plato's pure ideas from where we had come and where we always tend to. The call of another wise man from antiquity,Socrate,engraved on the frontispiece of Apollo's temple in Delphi..."Gnothi seauton"(Know your self),shows the way to the true knowledge.Just bent on our selves we find the power and means of rising above the times we live in , in order to preserve the sacred fire of truth and good in our soul. Idealist,with spirit of justice ,and philosopher,the artist has to remain a nonconformist.I think the artist has the duty and purpose to discover the hidden face of things and phenomena ,to remove masks from the face of false identities and to reveal the existence of beauty where you expect less...Or,at least,these are some of my basic principles regarding the position and identity of an Artist in order to consolidate a strong and well informed society. In my view,the artist should remain neutral with regard to these social mechanisms. Social,political or religious prejudges for an artist do not matter.He is a fighter without glory in the service of the society he thus consolidates,giving it a solid identity. I have transposed these thoughts in other contexts ,too,perhaps in a little different manner. We take nothing beyond the life,but it matters which sense we give our presence here on earth and what we leave after us after leaving this world...

Painting:Oil on Cardboard

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:15.7 W x 19.7 H x 0.8 D in

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