IF YOU WERE AN EMPIRE ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SETS Print

IF YOU WERE AN EMPIRE ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SETS 150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm acrylic and oil on canvas 2016 If you were an Empire On which the sun never sets My kingdom of light Risen in golden spring I would follow you Anywhere you want me to If you were an Empire On which the sun never sets My shieldmaid of hope Grace under your flag I would burn for you Everywhere you will go If you were an Empire On which the sun never sets My dream in dust Fallen to ruins long ago I would remember you Wherever my heart will flow. * * * In other words about Yesterday: "The past is not dead. It's not even past." William C. Faulkner (1897-1962) * * * ABOUT THE BACKGROUNDS The painting is from my series INNOCENCE. Central topic is light: brightness as a symbol that stands for the beginning, the morning, the pureness and birth, the ease and light-heartedness. In other words: innocence. And this innocence is beautiful, perfect, immortal. This innocence is emotional, it touches and is a promise. Mostly the series works with very different yellow and red colours. We are talking about affirmative paintings as a stark contrast to the (daily) madness and confusions around us. These paintings are my answer to all the negative events in this world and it correlates with my credo: be hot, be cold but never be lukewarm. Today is already past, and we have to fight against the gloom before melancholia will drown us. We should offer resistance against the inner and outer debris fields – we can be warriors of the light (within the meaning of Paulo Coelho) and we are able to design our fate in an intensive and positive kind. We’re standing back to back and defending our well standpoints. We are making mistakes. But we are fighting. Of course there’s a drop of bitterness. Because light also creates shadows. We aren’t always able to control what we’ve started. Nothing is only good. Maybe at the beginning, in the first moments of a genesis but time corrupts, relativises, besmears. We carry a dualism inside our heads. Man is wolf to man – homo homini lupus – in terms of Thomas Hobbes, and there’s always more than only one side of the coin. We have to face the fact that the subject of innocence creates a human tendency to ideologism. The search of brightness, light and truth often becomes abnormal and arouses fanaticism. History teaches us enough examples where dark and evil doings where installed under the flag of enlightenment and best intents. Classical (I don’t want to stress modern cases because often it is too obvious but our society doesn’t want to call a spade a spade) but no singular cases: the time of the French Revolution when the true fight for equality headed for political lawsuits and the guillotine. We do remember the names: Robespierre, Danton but also Rousseau and Napoleon. Or let us bethink of the end of the Roman Republic with its protagonists Cicero, Pompeius, Crassus and the unstoppable rise of Julius Caesar. Seemingly there is no light without shadows, no whole truth without a dictatorship of opinion. I don’t judge. How much evil doings are tolerable to let the good win? The means and the end – an age-old dilemma. Is a macchiavellistic view legitimate? I am just the annalist and keep the minutes as an expressive-abstract protocol about our incarnation and awareness raising. That thoughtful undertone acts in this series only as an intellectual pastime (mostly articulated by the painting’s title and accompanied by my poetry). It doesn’t derogate the positive prevailing mood of the painting series. But the other side of the coin is always present, this latent danger of overstatement and overreaction. A high-contrast and intensive colour palette phrases my point of view. The unpolluted pureness, the complete good remains a longing, an objective and an illusion at the same time. We all have to stand this cognition. For further information about the series please have a look at my website www.7and1lives.de and select the menu item painting/series/series innocence. Thank you for your interest. * * * * This piece is a true LARGE-SIZED PAINTING. For a large-scale, aesthetic and colourful impression on your wall AND as my authentic and personal artwork with an artistic subsurface message. The top is in Indian Yellow, the bottom in Gold. I use exclusively oil and acrylic colours, canvas and wooden frames in a professional museum quality. The painting wears my signature on the front and is signed, entitled and dated on the backside. Deliberately the sides (about 2 cm wide) are not part of the painting and show the black-painted canvas with few paint splatters (as typical for professional original paintings). The painting is ready to hang (on the backside: high-quality iron plates with metal inserts and nylon rope for gallery use), unframed and doesn’t need a frame or any additional surface treatment. The piece will be safely shipped in a custom wooden crate. It will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a cover letter and my poem (written for this painting) as an additional part of the artwork. Please note: In context pictures are not necessarily to scale and are for illustrative purposes only. If you have any questions about this painting or any other piece, feel free to contact me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks so much for taking an interest in my work. Warm wishes, Christian

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:13.25 W x 15.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.