Purple. Diptych Painting

Purple-is the color that was worth gold because of its high cost and scarcity. In fact, it was the most expensive color in the antique world. Purple fabrics were luxury articles, notably, purple and porphira became symbols of power and royalty of the one possessing them. Purple, as well as yellow, are the most important colors in the Byzantine culture representing their divine nature and imperial virtues. The negative side of yellow symbolizes dandyish abundance combined with somewhat obtrusive, shameless, acute and arrogant features. Wassily Kandinsky, in his book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, admits his predominantly negative attitude towards yellow. He thinks that it introduces commotion and agitation, exhibiting violence deeply rooted in the character of this color, and acting impudently and intrusively. Kandinsky compares the color with madness. The combination of yellow and purple in a project represents a patchy fun-fair of a daily luxury life, a contrast of two worlds – commonalty and power. The monkeys painted against the sumptuous interior background of the Kremlin Palace, as a combination of yellow and purple, illustrate sarcastic contrast, for a monkey remains monkey even if it gets robed into the Tyrian purple within the golden halls. The idea for this painting originates from the personal real-life observations and the essay “The Praise of Folly” by Erasmus of Rotterdam. The modern life is a fair full of idiots. The focal point of the essay is Folly reigning in the world, a mockery of authorities over free development of a person and society. The paradox of the ‘Word of Praise’ is rooted in the dialectic view, according to which all things are contradictory and have ‘two faces’. Erasmus’ satire spares nobody – just as Folly has sovereign control among common people, so too it has sovereign control in the royal household, where kings and noblemen don’t have even half-ounce of common sense.

Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:141.7 W x 70.9 H x 3.9 D in

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